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dyslexzak's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I read it on the recommendation of Philip Pullman in his book Daemon Voices.
I wasn't disappointed.
I wasn't disappointed.
ihyuca's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
vickelusing's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
fr_eddie's review against another edition
3.0
3,75 Ok magari non odio davvero le poesie
Una raccolta di poesie e ballate molto carina, approvata. Non mi sono messa a leggere tutte le parti in inglese, ma quando lo facevo e notavo le rime ero molto contenta. Ci piace un po' di ritmo✨
La ballata del vecchio marinaio molto carina, il concetto di amore per tutte le cose, la punizione per quel peccato d'odio, il marinaio che insegna la sua lezione di vita ai poveri innocenti invitati ai matrimoni. Morale cristiana ma anche solitudine e pazzia in mezzo al mare, ci piace.
Christabel molto carino, peccato che Samuel si fosse scocciato e abbia deciso di non fare un finale. Uomini stupidi, una strega e rapporti omoerotici? Sono tutta tua. E Geraldine, pur minacciando Christabel, non le ha torto un capello, quindi io vivrò nella mia illusione che lei è solo una maga saffica che vuole essere amata, non mi interessa del serpente o di nient'altro. I defend women.
Kubla Khan era giusto Samuel che si immaginava un giardino molto carino, quindi buon per lui ig.
Le altre poesie sicuramente carine e capibili, soprattutto 'A una giovinetta per la sua guarigione': «Besides, what vexed us worse, we knew,
They have no need of such as you
In the place where you were going:
This World has angels all too few,
And Heaven is overflowing!»
(Suona meglio in inglese, shh). Però giggling my feet, smiling, blushing a little. Potrà essere una poesia per una giovane in convalescenza, però queste rime proprio carine mi piacciono.
Lo consiglierei? Ovvio. L'ho trovato un libro veloce, scorrevole, e soprattutto capibile. Molto carino, peccato che non ci sia un vero finale per Christabel.
Una raccolta di poesie e ballate molto carina, approvata. Non mi sono messa a leggere tutte le parti in inglese, ma quando lo facevo e notavo le rime ero molto contenta. Ci piace un po' di ritmo✨
La ballata del vecchio marinaio molto carina, il concetto di amore per tutte le cose, la punizione per quel peccato d'odio, il marinaio che insegna la sua lezione di vita ai poveri innocenti invitati ai matrimoni. Morale cristiana ma anche solitudine e pazzia in mezzo al mare, ci piace.
Christabel molto carino, peccato che Samuel si fosse scocciato e abbia deciso di non fare un finale. Uomini stupidi, una strega e rapporti omoerotici? Sono tutta tua. E Geraldine, pur minacciando Christabel, non le ha torto un capello, quindi io vivrò nella mia illusione che lei è solo una maga saffica che vuole essere amata, non mi interessa del serpente o di nient'altro. I defend women.
Kubla Khan era giusto Samuel che si immaginava un giardino molto carino, quindi buon per lui ig.
Le altre poesie sicuramente carine e capibili, soprattutto 'A una giovinetta per la sua guarigione': «Besides, what vexed us worse, we knew,
They have no need of such as you
In the place where you were going:
This World has angels all too few,
And Heaven is overflowing!»
(Suona meglio in inglese, shh). Però giggling my feet, smiling, blushing a little. Potrà essere una poesia per una giovane in convalescenza, però queste rime proprio carine mi piacciono.
Lo consiglierei? Ovvio. L'ho trovato un libro veloce, scorrevole, e soprattutto capibile. Molto carino, peccato che non ci sia un vero finale per Christabel.
rosielazar1's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
maddyontheoffbeat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Confusing
capodoglio's review against another edition
4.0
The Ancyent Marinere Rulez
The publishing of Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems in 1798 is usually regarded as the birth certificate of the Romantic movement in English litterae.
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, deliberately breaking away from the common taste of the age, had underlined in the opening Advertisement the "experimental" and innovative character of their compositions. It had been their program to write poetry in the lower and middle registers, with a particular focus on "painting manners and passions" and an explicit link "with our elder writers". All of which applies to the poem in question. The Rime takes place of honour as the opening poem of the collection, and by far also the longest.
It was actually one of the very few contributions on Coleridge's part, and an ill-fitting one at that. Wordsworth came to think that "the old words and the strangeness" of it turned readers away from the rest of the collection (made up largely of his own poems). His final comment on the poem, though, is a perfect statement of pros and cons:
The Poem of my Friend has indeed great defects; first, that the principal person has no distinct character, either in his profession of Mariner, or as a human being who having been long under the control of supernatural impressions might be supposed himself to partake of something supernatural; secondly, that he does not act, but is continually acted upon; thirdly, that the events having no necessary connection do not produce each other; and lastly, that the imagery is somewhat too laboriously accumulated. Yet the Poem contains many delicate touches of passion, and indeed the passion is every where true to nature, a great number of the stanzas present beautiful images, and are expressed with unusual felicity of language; and the versification, though the metre is itself unfit for long poems, is harmonious and artfully varied, exhibiting the utmost powers of that metre, and every variety of which it is capable. It therefore appeared to me that these several merits (the first of which, namely that of the passion, is of the highest kind) gave to the Poem a value which is not often possessed by better Poems.
Note in passing the stress on feeling and imagery over reason and equilibrium. How Romantic.
As for the 'old words', Coleridge programmatically used archaic spellings and constructions in order to achieve what we would now call a vintage look. This is what the Advertisement has to say on the point:
The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere was professedly written in imitation of the style, as well as of the spirit of the elder poets; but with a few exceptions, the Author believes that the language adopted in it has been equally intelligible for these three last centuries.
In point of fact Coleridge revised the poem in 1817, modernising some forms (title included), adding a few stanzas, and including an explanatory gloss that is now justly famous in its own right. This edition follows the later version—but sadly omitting the gloss.
This is my third or more probably fourth reading of The Rime. And for all its shortcomings, it is always a pleasure. However unnatural and contrived, both the language and the imagery are extremely powerful. And it's funny how the most artificial passages are often the most effective. The description of Cape Horn frosted with ice is just one among my personal favourites: otherwise there's no shortage of sea birds, sea monsters, sea gods, ghost ships, oceanic scenery and a whole boatload of mariners' talk. A must for all lovers of sea naratives!
Pointedly, the poem has been interpreted as symbolizing a great many things. Christianity, paganism, the Wandering Jew... Personally I'm more interested in the sheer number of these readings than in each or any of them: such wealth of interpretations is perhaps the best testimony to its aesthetic value.
Oh and obviously it has been in time quoted by Melville, Stoker, Mary Shelley, The Pogues... among countless others. The Ancient Mariner is still in perfect good health.
Finally, I've always loved the fact that the closing message is one of animalism ante-litteram, albeit on religious grouds:
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us
He made and loveth all.
(I may write more in the next days; but for now I'm spent. That's all, folks)
The publishing of Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems in 1798 is usually regarded as the birth certificate of the Romantic movement in English litterae.
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, deliberately breaking away from the common taste of the age, had underlined in the opening Advertisement the "experimental" and innovative character of their compositions. It had been their program to write poetry in the lower and middle registers, with a particular focus on "painting manners and passions" and an explicit link "with our elder writers". All of which applies to the poem in question. The Rime takes place of honour as the opening poem of the collection, and by far also the longest.
It was actually one of the very few contributions on Coleridge's part, and an ill-fitting one at that. Wordsworth came to think that "the old words and the strangeness" of it turned readers away from the rest of the collection (made up largely of his own poems). His final comment on the poem, though, is a perfect statement of pros and cons:
The Poem of my Friend has indeed great defects; first, that the principal person has no distinct character, either in his profession of Mariner, or as a human being who having been long under the control of supernatural impressions might be supposed himself to partake of something supernatural; secondly, that he does not act, but is continually acted upon; thirdly, that the events having no necessary connection do not produce each other; and lastly, that the imagery is somewhat too laboriously accumulated. Yet the Poem contains many delicate touches of passion, and indeed the passion is every where true to nature, a great number of the stanzas present beautiful images, and are expressed with unusual felicity of language; and the versification, though the metre is itself unfit for long poems, is harmonious and artfully varied, exhibiting the utmost powers of that metre, and every variety of which it is capable. It therefore appeared to me that these several merits (the first of which, namely that of the passion, is of the highest kind) gave to the Poem a value which is not often possessed by better Poems.
Note in passing the stress on feeling and imagery over reason and equilibrium. How Romantic.
As for the 'old words', Coleridge programmatically used archaic spellings and constructions in order to achieve what we would now call a vintage look. This is what the Advertisement has to say on the point:
The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere was professedly written in imitation of the style, as well as of the spirit of the elder poets; but with a few exceptions, the Author believes that the language adopted in it has been equally intelligible for these three last centuries.
In point of fact Coleridge revised the poem in 1817, modernising some forms (title included), adding a few stanzas, and including an explanatory gloss that is now justly famous in its own right. This edition follows the later version—but sadly omitting the gloss.
This is my third or more probably fourth reading of The Rime. And for all its shortcomings, it is always a pleasure. However unnatural and contrived, both the language and the imagery are extremely powerful. And it's funny how the most artificial passages are often the most effective. The description of Cape Horn frosted with ice is just one among my personal favourites: otherwise there's no shortage of sea birds, sea monsters, sea gods, ghost ships, oceanic scenery and a whole boatload of mariners' talk. A must for all lovers of sea naratives!
Pointedly, the poem has been interpreted as symbolizing a great many things. Christianity, paganism, the Wandering Jew... Personally I'm more interested in the sheer number of these readings than in each or any of them: such wealth of interpretations is perhaps the best testimony to its aesthetic value.
Oh and obviously it has been in time quoted by Melville, Stoker, Mary Shelley, The Pogues... among countless others. The Ancient Mariner is still in perfect good health.
Finally, I've always loved the fact that the closing message is one of animalism ante-litteram, albeit on religious grouds:
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us
He made and loveth all.
(I may write more in the next days; but for now I'm spent. That's all, folks)
sorina_sfreja's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
leecarlisle's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0