coleridge vs. wordsworth
.... The fourth section of the poem portrays the mariner, on the verge of death, as he slowly begins to feel a small hope of light. Poets of the Romantic period worked endlessly at creating a certain mood, or atmosphere that lingered through the poem. While lines Written in Early Spring develops a light, blissful ambience, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner employs a darker, more dower tone. Through his poem, Wordsworth uses phrases such as ‘I heard a thousand blended notes’ while ‘the birds around me hopped and played’ to illustrate the joyful serenity surrounding him. Even when expressing his thought ‘Have I not reason to lament what man has made of man?’ Wordsworth does not directly describe the grief and pain that man has created, but allows the reader’s mind to imagine that strife. He takes an effort not to disturb the merry flow of the poem, while hinting at his thoughts on the relationship between mankind and humanity. Coleridge, on the other hand, takes great pains in sustaining a gloomy, bleak atmosphere. He portrays the sailor as ‘Alone, alone, all, all alone’ where ‘never a saint took pity on my soul in agony’ as he lay there with the ‘rotting sea’ and the ‘rotting deck’. Although, towards the final paragraphs of the section, Coleridge does introduce a slightly lighter image as he envisages the water snakes as they swim with a ‘flash of golden fire’ that encourages ‘a spring of love’ that ‘gushed from my heart.’ One of the most prominent styles of the Romantics was the simple yet effective poetic diction the poets used to capture the true essence of the poem. In Lines Written in Early Spring, Wordsworth personifies the creatures around him, as ‘the periwinkle trailed its wreaths’, the birds ‘hopped and played’ and the ‘the budding twigs spread out their fan, to catch the breezy air...