Thursday 9 May 2013

My favourite poem

We are learning about Romantic poetry this week.We learnt about poems by Wordsworth, Byron and Coleridge.

My favourite poem we read is called 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', by  Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I like it because it is a story and I love storytelling.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was addicted to a drug called opium.He was a close friend to William Wordsworth and agreed with him about nature. They both saw nature like a god and sometime spelt it with a capital N. He married Sara Hutchinson.

'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is about a mariner telling a wedding guest a story. The story is about himself and his fellow sailors lost at sea. They were running out of food but then they saw a good sign. It was an albatross. In those times, people thought albatrosses brought them good luck. But then, the mariner shot the albatross. All the crew were angry with him because they had now lost all their food. Though, as a punishment they made him wear the albatross around his neck. But one by one they all died, except the mariner. After a long time it rained! Then he is near land and meets a hermit and he tells him what he has done. The hermit tells him that he must tell the story to everyone he feels compelled to tell (like the wedding guest).

My favourite bit is:

And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

I like this bit because in the first verse it has a very good comparison (choked with soot). Also, I like where it says 'was withered at the root'. I like this because I imagine a wrinkled root for their tongue. I like the part about the cross and the albatross because I think that would be a good punishment, because an albatross is heavy and they can see that he killed the albatross.

The albatross was hung around neck as a bit of a metaphor too because when we do the wrong thing, that weighs on you until you feel like you have to tell somebody.


1 comment:

  1. I love this poem, so glad your Mum has been doing lots of poetry. Love the way you explain the meaning of the albatross. Love Grandad

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