Poetry Analysis - Coleridge, Tennyson, Hopkins, and Wordsworth

The Romantic poet Percy Shelley once wrote, “Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.” Both the Romantic and the Victorian periods of poetry followed Shelley’s vision of poetry as they exposed their respective societal issues. Romantic period lasted from1785 to 1830, a time in which England moved from an agrarian to industrial country and overall nationalistic ideals threatened the individuality of the poets and artists. The Romantic period of poetry was therefore very reactionary. It was a reaction to enlightenment ideas, to the disregard for human life in revolutions, and to the uniform of nationalism. The decay of social values that took place in the latter part of the Victorian period spurred many writers to shift the context of their work from the Romantic natural forms to education, women’s rights, and political ideologies. Though both periods produced a momentous achievements in structure, language, and musicality of the poetic movement, the Romantic period effectuated an extreme feat in poetry in a mere fifty years. Samuel Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a Romantic ballad in seven parts, with fairly regular quatrains. Its short sentence structure develops steady movement, allowing to the reader’s engagement to grow as the tale progresses and the speaker’s message is unveiled. The tetrameter structure reveals an explanation of the title; the Ancient Mariner orally recites his tale, teaching a universal lesson on nature’s value and the earth’s deserving of respect. Coleridge uses both dialogue and varying perspective to establish a credibility in his work. An omniscient narrator speaks of an instance where the “bright-eyed” Mariner tells his story to a wedding-guest and the effect the tale has on him; “a sadder and a wiser man, / He rise the morrow morn” (Coleridge 624-625). Coleridge often utilizes the effect of exclamation points when the Mariner is speaking to