Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
Author’s message/ main idea.
The main theme of this literally piece is sin and repentance. The mariner has sinned terribly by killing the albatross, one of the dearest creature of God. As a result, he spends the rest of his years making atonement for the sins committed forthwith. He suffers and then gains the virtual of humility. He then dedicates his life towards warning others on the dangers of sin. He uses his own life as an example to others. The poem shows that one can only be redeemed through the imagination, which is an essential romantic theme.
Author’s Techniques
The author uses multiple poetic devices in his narrative. For instance, alliteration, consonance, assonance, and onomatopoeia. He has used the most common ABCB rhyme scheme in addition to internal rhyme. Coleridge often uses repetition. This can be seen in the first stanzas of Part III, in which ‘weary’ has been repeated thrice ( Coleridge, 2002 ). ‘Wist’ has also been repeated severally throughout the poem. Alliteration has been intertwined with the internal rhyme. For instance "Hold off! Unhand me, graybeard loon!' / "Eftsoons his hand dropped he" ( Coleridge, 2002 ). He also uses parallelism all through the poem. For instance, in the line: “For all averred, I had killed the bird / That made the breeze to blow,” and “Then all averred, I had killed the bird / That brought the fog and mist” this is a good source of symmetry for the poem for building tension as well as generating an ominous tone ( Coleridge, 2002 ). All these and others indicate the author’s use of stylistic devices.
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Tennyson and "Crossing the Bar"
Message
The theme is about Tennyson’s impending death. The poem uses the image of the sea as a representation of the ‘barrier’ between life and death ( Whissell, 2002) . This metaphor has been created as an image of ‘crossing the bar’- where the term ‘bar’ is used in reference of a physical sand bar in shallow water.
Author’s Techniques
Tennyson uses assonance when repeating vowel sounds in a singular line. For instance, the sound /o/ in “And may there be no moaning of the bar” ( Whissell, 2002) . Besides, he uses imagery is used to activate the use of senses for the readers. For instance: “Sunset and evening star” and “But such a tide as moving seems asleep” ( Whissell, 2002) . Furthermore, Tennyson uses symbolism in signifying qualities and ideas and give them meanings contrary to their literal ones. For example: “Evening” has been used as a symbol of death. Other devices used include: enjambment, alliteration, metaphor and personification ( Whissell, 2002) .
John Donne: Poems Meditation 17
Theme
The poem has two main ideas which have been detailed as a single phrase. There is the theme of fundamental unity and human beings’ connectedness. This is the meaning created by the phrase: "No man is an island" (Donne, 1986).
Author’s Techniques
Donne uses imagery when he refers to God as an “author” since he created every person and death: “all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated” (Donne, 1986) . He also uses flashback when he recounts how the religious orders disagree on a number of factors. Besides, metaphor is used in reference to death and the ostensible readers: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” (Donne, 1986).
References
Coleridge, S. T. (2002). The rime of the ancient mariner. Medicine and Literature: The Doctor's Companion to the Classics , 1 , 207.
Donne, J. (1986). The complete English poems (Vol. 24). Penguin UK.
Whissell, C. (2002). Emotion conveyed by sound in the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Empirical Studies of the Arts , 20 (2), 137-155.
