Sticks And Stones Can Break Thy Bones

Essay, Research Paper

In “Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”, Wordsworth uses imagination to help him and others to live in the physical world peacefully. He recalls playing in Tintern Abbey, a forest nearby there and played in it when he was young. Now he comes back for different reasons. He escapes the world which is individualism and goes to the forest to get away from all the burden. He tells his young sister that she can always come here to get away from her problems as well. In the poem, Wordsworth uses nature to solve problems in life.

The Tintern Abbey has mysterious powers that only those in touch with nature can see. Wordsworth illustrates such powers by writing, “These beauteous forms/Through a long absence, have not been to me/As is a landscape to a blind man s eye”. He wishes he could feel the beautiful powers of the forest more often.

Coleridges poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” illustrates Christian redemption and man s redeemable qualities. Coleridge believes life and poetry both follow a cyclical pattern. The story is about a man s literal and spiritual journey and how they parallel each other. On these journeys, Coleridge imaginatively explores the supernatural. He makes the story and the Mariners experiences more interesting. The Mariner experiences moral error and physical decay that changes his view on life during his journey.

In the first part of the story, the Mariner and his crew come across an albatross, a “pious good omen,” “That made the wind blow,” a mysterious, supernatural quality. The crew of the ship welcome it “As if it had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God s name.” The Mariner, however, is mustering pride and decides to shoot the Albatross with his crossbow. He illustrates his belief that he does not need the good luck of the Albatross. He decides to severe his bonds with the universal cycle of life and love. Following the execution of the Albatross, the Mariner s luck suddenly changes. He experiences the punishment that comes with the moral error of killing the Albatross. The punishment is isolation and alienation from everything but himself. Thereafter, the “Nightmare,” the life in death, kills his crew. He is lost at sea, left alone in the night to suffer, and he has detached from his natural cycle. The Mariner proclaims his misery when he says, “Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! / And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony”. To the Mariner, nature has become foreign. The execution of the Albatross causes physical and spiritual decay.

The Mariner then has a changed eye on nature. While looking at the stars and the moon, the Mariner notices that the stars have a place in the sky, and they belong to a set position. The Moon, however does not, and is on a journey like the Mariner. It is then that the Mariner decides to accept everything around him as beautiful. A natural course of action takes place and his bonds with the cycle of life are recreated, setting him back on course on his literal voyage to his own country. He ends up completing his voyage and his journey.

The Mariner has learned nature s way of life on his voyage, and decides to teach it to common people around the world. While suffering for his moral error of having the pride to kill the Albatross, the Mariner blesses everything from his heart and lives on to tell the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, traveling from country to country, helping people to keep away from his path of life and to accept everything as a natural path that leads to success in life. Through moral error and physical and mental decay the Mariner completes his literal voyage through the supernatural and his spiritual journey through the physical redemptions of life. His errors cause him radical change, new forms of expression, and a concern for the common people.