'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and Poetic Technique - Professor Belinda Jack

Gresham College
Gresham College
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Published 2017-03-01
In the line, 'The Western wave was all aflame', the 'Western wave' refers to the sea. But is it this simple? What do forms of substitution, synecdoche (a figure of speech in which the name of a part is used to stand for the whole) for example, lend to this magnificent and shadowy poem?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/samuel-taylo…

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All Comments (20)
  • @johnnicholas1488
    Do we murder to dissect ? Would we wish a chemist to describe a rose ? I have been reading this poem for over 50 years, and I have no idea what it "means". However the imagery and the words, especially the words, have created a caste upon my mind which reverberates at the most unexpected times. Oh I think I understand what the lecturer is doing having majored in lit in college some fifty years ago. She has by her very circumstance been forced into being a technician. She does a very satisfactory job of it . I thank her for doing it so well.
  • @lilianaprina5991
    One reads poetry because is not a want to read the common mind or xommon people. One loves ancient Literature because is interesting to read Coleridge's madness and how to understand his old English. Coleridge is fabulous. Thanks for sharing your interpretation. I hardly read contemporary Literature because my feelings in such a matter is one should read all the classics first in life before moving on to other kind of written words.
  • @CPHSDC
    For an incredibly short amount of time, I was a little bit smarter for having sat through and payed attention. Like a phoenix soaring aloft, Soon swooned into a pitiful puddle of ashes. Appreciated it. Especially rediscovering L''Albatros. That was like an Eclair after a cold soup..
  • @warrendargusch5873
    Wasnt this poem written by an Australian aborigine? I heard that the ancient mariner was actually an aboriginal elder called uncle Albonese! Could you enlightem me on this please?
  • @mustavogaia2655
    disapointing - I thought it was a lecture on Iron Maiden, but I am half hour in and no mention of Bruce
  • @TimGreig
    Why (other than "job" requirement) do we feel a need to analyse the life out of poetry? This poem invokes the imagination with rich imagery and words and our hearts sing. But no, let's chop the tree into tiny bits and wonder where the beauty lays.
  • @marklilly9161
    Dreadful performance. Apart from all the verbal hesitancy, her procedure is to read a few lines of her scripted lecture, then stop and explain what she meant. Sorry, no. Just say what you want to say, clearly, once. If you have to explain your own text by repeating the idea twice, you need to rethink your whole approach.
  • @user-mc1co5hg9n
    Valued speaker, hon'rable Madam, Pray reduce your count of "ahem"!!! Please return a value of zero And thus turn rhetorics' hero.