coleridge and the luminous gloom

8/13/2019 Coleridge and the Luminous Gloom

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Coleridge and the Luminous Gloom:

An Analysis of the "Symbolical

Language" in The Rime

of the Ancient Mariner

Elliott B. Gose, Jr.

Speaking of the "plan of the 'Lyrical Ballads'" in chapter 14 of hisBiographia Literaria,

Coleridge pointed out that while Wordsworth was to deal with "the wonders of the world beforeus," he himself was to try to connect the human truth of "our inward nature" with the "shadows

of imagination." The fruitfulness of this connection is eidenced byThe Ancient Mariner! its

aesthetic basis was analyed by Coleridge at a later date# "The romantic poetry," he decided,appeals "to the imagination rather than to the senses and to the reason as contemplating ourinward nature, the woring o! the passions in their most retired recesses." $y"eciting our

internal emotions," the poet"ac#uires the right and pri$ilege o! using time and space as they

eist in the imagination, o%edient only to the laws which the imagination acts %y."

%hilosophically, Coleridge&s transcendentalism is obiously responsible for this assertion of thesuperiority of the mind oer nature! he had remarked its psychologicalbasis as early as 1'()#

*n looking at ob+ects of ature while * am thinking, as at yonder moon dim-glimmering through

the dewy window-pane, * seem rather to be seeking, as it were asking for, a symbolical language,for something within me that already and for eer eists, than obsering anything new. /en

when that latter is the case, yet still * hae always an obscure feeling as if that new phenomenon

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&0romMLA), no. 2 3 une 156(7. 8 156( by the 9odern :anguage ;ssociation of

;merica.

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were the dim awakening of a forgotten or hidden truth of my inner nature.

3Anima oetae7

*n iew of statements such as these, the critic is +ustified in asking whether The Ancient Marinerdoes not employ a language more figuratie than literal to tell of eents more inward than

outward.

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*n recent years there hae been seeral attempts to eplain the symbolism in The Ancient

Mariner. The two most important published interpretations are erbert Clarke &s lesser-known and less ambitious"*ertain

+ym%ols in The ime o! the Ancient Mariner" - ueen's uarterly, /e%ruary 01227. ;s Warren

sees it, the poem has two themes, first "the theme o! sacramental $ision or the theme o! the '3neLi!e' " and second "the theme o! the imagination." The first centers on the killing of the albatross.


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*n the second, "the moonlight e#uates with the 'modi!ying colours o! the imagination,' " while the

sun "is the light o! that 'mere re!lecti$e !aculty' that 'partoo o! 4eath' "5 "in the poem the good

e$ents tae place under the aegis o! the moon, the %ad e$ents under that o! the sun." Clarke&sapproach is similar to Warren&s, though simpler and different in emphasis. ;s he sees it,"the +un

-with the olar +pirit and the !irst 6oice7 is concei$ed in *oleridge's imagination as suggesting

the stern, 8ust, masculine, puniti$e side o! the nature o! God5 and ... the Moon -with the 9ermitand the +econd 6oice7 normally sym%oli:es the gentle, !eminine redempti$e side," ;s the word

"normally" suggests, any thorough treatment of these symbols must account for their

ambialence in a more comprehensie way than either Clarke or Warren do.

;ccording to Warren&s interpretation, the oyage taken by the 9ariner is a mental +ourney fromconentional daytime thoughts to the land of imagination. 0aced with this "land o! ice, and o!

!ear!ul sounds where no li$ing thing was to %e seen" -=loss7, the crew is terrified. $ut their fear

is abated and the ice splits before them after the appearance of the ;lbatross!"as i! it had %een a*hristian soul, we hailed it in God's name." $ecause they accept it on these terms, the 9ariner is

wrong to kill it, as are his fellows to +udge the act solely by its alue to them. Their crime is at

once slighter and more mundane than the 9ariner&s! therefore, they suffer death at the %acifice?uator, while he undergoes the harsher punishment of life

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in death. This situation is what Warren refers to when he talks of the theme of "sacramental

ision or . . . the &@ne :ife,& " presumably taking the last phrase from "The Eolian 9arp"which

speaks of "the one :ife within us and abroad" 31. A67. $ut this pantheistic belief becomessacramental only when =od is brought in, and Warren does bring >im in with his claim that the

9ariner commits the original sin when he kills the bird. * would support Warren&s interpretation,

citing St. ;ugustine&s definition of original sin# "The soul abandons >im to whom it ought to

cleae as its end, and becomes a kind of end to itself." The 9ariner&s act is as much an attempt tonegate =od&s principles as to set up his own, but the results of that act demonstrate his inability to

function once he separates himself from =od. 0or such a crime it is fitting punishment that the9ariner is left alone, surrounded by the soulless bodies of his friends, reminders of what he had

repudiated in killing the ;lbatross.

So far we hae followed Warren&s hypothesis that in killing the ;lbatross the 9ariner separates

himself from a Christian =odBand certainly the poem is filled with Christian trappings. *tbegins with a church wedding and ends with an admonition to pray in church. *n between we

hae mention of Christ, 9ary ueen, >eaen, Spirits blest, >im who died on the cross, penance,

Dear :ord in >eaen, a holy hermit, and shrieing. 0inally, Coleridge indicates that the

;lbatross is important to the theme of the poem because it symbolies a Christian soul. ;ndalong with these Christian concepts and figures, we find a symbolic identification of =od with

the sun# "or dim nor red, like =od&s own head, E The glorious Sun uprist." *ronically, Warren&s

emphasis on Christianity leads away from his interpretation of the sun as symbolic of the "merereflectie faculty" and to a broader application of Clarke&s connection of the sun and =od. This

connection has a long and honorable history in Western culture, including %lato, %lotinus, and

;ugustine, to mention only three of the earliest and most releant writers. The ?ualities of thesun which Coleridge used in making it a symbol for =od are discussed in the net two sections.


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II

The most important scene in the poem is the blessing scene at the end of part 4. ;lthough it has

been mentioned by most critics, only ohn :iingston :owes has analyed it minutely. ;ndwhereas he was interested in the sources of its images and how they were combined, we shall be

interested in their meaning. The moon appears to dominate the scene.

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>er beams bemocked the sultry main,

:ike ;pril hoar-frost spread#$ut where the ship&s huge shadow lay,

The charmed water burnt alway

; still and awful red.

$eyond the shadow of the ship,

* watched the water-snakes!They moed in tracks of shining white,

;nd when they reared, the elfish light0ell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship

* watched their rich attire#

$lue, glossy green, and elet black,They coiled and swam! and eery track

Was a flash of golden fire.

@ happy liing thingsF no tongueTheir beauty might declare#; spring of loe gushed from my heart,

;nd * blessed them unaware#

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,;nd * blessed them unaware.

The beams of the moon are "like ;pril hoar(!rost," white and cold coming together as they did at

the end of part 1 when the moon first appeared and when the gloss spoke of "snow-fog." These

?ualities are transferred to the water snakes in the net stana# "shining white"and "hoaryflakes." /?ually important, howeer, is a contrast in these stanas. The moonbeams moc"the

sultrymain" away from the ship, "Butwhere the ship&s huge shadow lay, the charmed water%urntalway a still and awful red."This contrast between the white, cold light of the moon, andthe red, burning color in the shade is emphasied by a deliberate further contrast in the net two

stanas. The one connecting the water-snakes with white and hoary begins "Beyondthe shadow

of the ship. " The net one begins "


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ments by Warren, Clarke, and a host of other critics to the contrary notwithstanding.


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The rock shone bright, the kirk no less,

That stands aboe the rock#

The moonlight steeped in silentnessThe steady weathercock.

;nd the bay was white with silent light,Till rising from the same,

0ull many shapes, that shadows were,*n crimson colours came.

; little distance from the prow

Those crimson shadows were#* turned my eyes upon the deckB

@h, ChristF what saw * thereF

/ach corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,

;nd, by the holy roodF; man all light, a seraph man,

@n eery corse there stood.

*n the original ersion of the poem 3in theLyrical Ballads7 Coleridge included four stanas

immediately preceding these and emphasiing "dark-red shadows. "

3The moonlight bay was white all o&er,Til rising from the same,

0ull many shapes that shadows were,

:ike as of torches came.

; little distance from the prowThose dark-red shadows were!

$ut soon * saw that my own flesh

Was red as in a glare.

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* turn&d my head in fear and dread,

;nd by the holy rood,

The bodies had adanc&d, and now

$efore the mast they stood.

They lifted up their stiff right arms,

They held them strait and tight!

;nd each right-arm burnt like a torch,; torch that&s borne upright.

Their stony eye-balls glitter&d on

*n the red and smoky light.7


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ust as in the moonlit scene at the end of part 4 the 9ariner was about to reestablish harmony

with =od, so in this moonlit scene halfway through part 6 he is about to reestablish harmony

with society, but both important changes are preceded by a ision of red in the shadow outof themoonlight. The importance of red imagistically in the poem indicates a philosophic importance

which Coleridge later epressed in prose# "The interpenetration of :ight and Shade in the highest

unity, or the identity of :ight and Shadow is ations," - 0)1?7=

/or what is /reedom, %ut the un!ettered use

3! all the powers which God !or use had gi$en=

But chie!ly this with holiest ha%itude


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-l. 0@7

3! constant /aith, him /irst, him Last to $iew

-0. 0@a7

Through meaner powers and secondary things

E!!ulgent, as through clouds that $eil his %la:e./or all that meets the %odily sense deem

+ym%olical, one mighty alpha%et

/or in!ant minds5 and we in this low worldlaced with our %acs to %right eality,

That we may learn with young unwounded en

Things !rom their shadows. now thysel! my soulC

The indi$idual sees God %y looing at the shadow, an analogy that %ears a close resem%lance to

lato's myth o! the ca$e, which *oleridge e$idently had in mind when he attri%uted "theluminous gloom" to lato.But where lato scorns the shadows which constitute our world o! the

senses, calling them in!erior copies o! the ideal, *oleridge tells us "all that meets the %odilysense deem D +ym%olical, one mighty alpha%et" %y which to see God.

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The real affinity of Coleridge&s images, then, is with later %latonic thought. This is especially true

of "thy sunny mist" which appears in the foregoing passage as =od the life-giing sun Whom itis better to see "Through meaner powers and secondary things E /ffulgent as through clouds that

eil his blae."

The sun does not appear south of the e?uator, in the land of ice and snow, until the first stana of

part A, at which point the ship has left the known ;tlantic and entered the unknown %acific. "TheSun now rose upon the right," and is "hid in mist," causing the crew to chide the 9ariner. Soon,

howeer, it rises "or dim, nor red, like =od&s own head," and they praise his deed. $ut

according to Coleridge in " The 4estiny o! >ations," the proper way to see =od is through mists"that eil his blae." Seeing him directly is a foretaste of the engeance which soon comes# ";ll

in a hot and copper sky E The bloody sun at noon E


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0urther, the sun is forced to set after the spectre woman wins the dice game. =od, the source of

life, punishment, and redemption, is replaced by another force, not +ust black death 3which is a

negation of =od&s light7, but the ightmare life-in-death who wins the 9ariner. She is obiouslyoutside the Christian hierarchy and is connected with a whole strand of non-Christian figures,

incidents, and images in the poem. The %olar region, for instance, is presided oer by the %olar

Spirit, which is of a different order from the angelic spirits, being specifically labelled as outsidethe Christian framework by the gloss# "; spirit had followed them! one of the inisible

inhabitants of this planet, neither departed souls nor angels! concerning whom the learned ew,

osephus, and the %latonic Constantinopolitan, 9ichael %sellus may be consulted. They are erynumerous, and there is no climate or element without one or more."

Where the sun is connected with man&s immortal soul, the moon is

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connected with the one life or mutable nature, as is clear from two stanas at the beginning of

part 6.

Still as a slae before his lord,The ocean hath no blast!

>is great bright eye most silently

Jp to the 9oon is castB

*f he may know which way to go!0or she guides him smooth or grim.

See, brother, seeF how graciously

She looketh down on him.

Smooth or grim. ;s Warren has pointed out, the storm in part 1 is connected with the moon, as isthat in part ). $ut in addition to the storms, the moon has a grim persona, which appears in part

2, the grimmest section of the poem. The death ship, we hae seen, cuts the mariners off from

=od, +ust as utter darkness negates the sun. *f dark death takes the mariners from sun-life, whatfunction is filled by the "ight-mare life-in-death"K "9erlips were red, herlooks were free, her

locks were yellow as gold# her skin was white as leprosy, . . . she ... thicks men&s blood with

cold." That she is the alter ego of the moon is indicated by the white cold connected with her.The engeance of the moon is to put the 9ariner into a state in which he is incapable of loe. *n

fact nature becomes to him what it is to "the poor, lo$elesseer-anious crowd" in "4e8ection=

An 3de"Ban "inanimate, coldworld."

*n his reiew of The Mon3 *ritical e$iew, /e%. 0)1)7, *oleridge praises "the tale o! the%leeding nun" as "truly terri!ic," and calls "the character o! Matilda ... the author's masterpiece.

t is, indeed, e#uisitely imagined, and as e#uisitely supported." Looing !orward to the >ight

mare li!e(in(death and to Geraldine, we can understand *oleridge's appreciation o! Lewis' two

demon women. The in!luence o! the %leeding nun on the "+pectre(


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him. "The charm now ceased to operate5 the %lood which had %een !ro:en in my $eins rushed

%ac to my heart with $iolence5 uttered a deep groan, and sun li!eless upon my pillow." That

Lewis' !re#uent connection o! cold with the demonic struc *oleridge as appropriate is indicated%y his singling out the scene in which "%lue !ires . . . increase the cold o! the ca$ern."

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Coleridge also approes :ewis& use of "the burning cross on the forehead of the Wandering ew."

$ut despite the undoubted influence of The Monon Coleridge, his ob+ections to it should berecorded, especially since they neatly distinguish it from real literature. The following is

obiously a ariation on the theme which Coleridge later deeloped to +ustify his supernatural

poems#

The romance-writer possesses an unlimited power oer situations! but he must scrupulouslymake his characters act in congruity with them.... The etent of the powers that may eist, we

can neer ascertain! and therefore we feel no great difficulty in yielding a temporary belief to

any, the strangest, situation of things.$ut that situation once conceied, how beings likeourseles would feel and act in it, our own feelings sufficiently instruct us! and we instantly

re+ect the clumsy fiction that does not harmonise with them.

When on the return oyage the ship again reaches the ;tlantic e?uator, it is stopped. The gloss

tells us that "the %olar Spirit&s fellow-daemons, the inisible inhabitants of the element, take partin his wrong! and two of them relate, one to the other, that penance long and heay for the

;ncient 9ariner hath been accorded to the %olar Spirit, who returneth southward." *n other

words, though =od has been satisfied by the 9ariner&s blessing of the water snakes, therepresentaties of this world demand additional penance.

We hae already noted that in part 4 the light of the moon makes an important contrast to theluminous dark with which the 9ariner&s conersion is associated. The imagery at the end of the

poem brings in the moonlight again, indicating that the compulsion the 9ariner feels to tell histale is associated with the moon. *n the net to last stana we are told, "The 9ariner, whose eye

is %right,whose beard with age is hoar,is gone." ;s Clarke has pointed out, the 9ariner&s eye

connects him with the crew who curse him with their eyes by "the star-dogged moon." We may

also remember two stanas already ?uoted in which the ocean&s "great bright eye most silently EJp to the 9oon is cast. " The 9ariner&s life-long penance is haing to act like a "grey-beard

loon." Let his listeners "cannot choose but hear," a tribute to the power of the moon and lunacy,

as was clear in some lines included in the original ersion of the poem# "9arinereF thou has thywill# E 0or that, which comes out of thine eye, doth make E 9y body and soul to be still."

The 9ariner had regained harmony with =od first and decisiely in

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the blessing scene, in images which were reiterated in the harbor scene. $ut not until he mies

with the mortals of this earth is he enabled to do bodily penance for his iolation of the one life.*n 1'(A Coleridge wrote in a letter to Sotheby, "ature has her proper interest, and he will know


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what it is who beliees and feels that eerything has a life of its own, and that we are all 3ne

Li!e." The wordproperindicates that by 1'(A 3as in The Ancient Marineritself7 Coleridge&s

pantheism is subordinate to his transcendentalism. 9ore simply, nature is subordinate to =od#philosophically and poetically, man&s relation to nature is sub+ect to time, whereas the relation of

his soul to =od is timeless. The absolute nature of this second relation means it can be fied once

and for all, as * feel it is in the blessing scene. The relatie nature of the first relation eplainswhy it must be reaffirmed throughout the 9ariner&s life. $ut in truth the 9ariner tells us little of

our relation to Wordsworthian nature, to wind, sea, sun, and moon. @ur premise has been that his

tale deals with no literal geographical oyage.

coleridge and the luminous gloom

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