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THE LAKE POETS
Wordsworth (1770–1850), Coleridge (1772–1834), and Southey (1774– 1843), having similar tastes in art and politics, formed a literary circle, the influence of which was felt on some other writers of the time. During the early nineties the works of these young poets were progressive. They criticized the existing social order, and great enthusiasm for the French Revolution can be felt in their works of the first period.
In 1793 Wordsworth wrote a poem, "Guilt and Sorrow". It is about a homeless sailor who was driven to crime, and a lonely woman who had lost her husband and three children in the war; all suffer from the cruelty of the law, but the only comfort Wordsworth offers is religion.
Though Wordsworth, and the other Lake Poets too, were Passive Romanticists, they were all great humanists. The following poem shows us what Wordsworth felt for man.
Southey met the Revolution with his drama "Wat Tyier" telling of the English peasant revolt in 1381. The following is the song of rebels.
Coleridge was also inspired to write a revolutionary poem. He wrote on the fall of the Bastille, but he failed to see the bitterness of the battles that had been fought by the people; in his poem liberty is sent from above by Providence.
The years of terror in France brought a change in the outlook of the Lake Poets: they could not understand the historical significance of the events, declared their hostility to the Revolution and sided with the reactionary policy of the British government. The end of the nineties mark die second period in the creative work of the Lake Poets.
It was at this time that Coleridge and Southey, with four other enthusiasts wished to found a domestic republic in America, which they called a "Pantisocracy". In it all property was to be held in common and people would enjoy a free life. Want of money, however, prevented this Utopian scheme. Contempt for the political struggle and fear of the future hushed the poets into a world of their own fantasy. In 1798 Wordsworth and Coleridge published a Volume of "Lyrical Ballads", in which the ideas of Reactionary Romanticism were plainly shown: man is depicted as a helpless creature living at the mercy of supernatural forces. This idea is clearly expressed in the famous ballad by Coleridge, written in the old English ballad style, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". The sea is depicted as something monstrous that cannot be overcome, something fatal that brings woe and death. Living beings seem to be forms without substance. But the wonderful description of the sea and the ship, the floating mass of green ice and the huge sea-bird, the Albatross, speak for themselves. Coleridge brings the reader into direct contact with the sea.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a fantastic story of a voyage told by an old sailor to a passer-by who was going to a wedding. With a few touches of his pen Coleridge makes the old seaman stand before us with his grey beard, glittering eyes and his long, brown, skinny hands. The passer-by cannot choose but listen to the unusual story of the old man.
At first the ship sailed southward till it reached the Line (equator), but drawn by a storm, it could not change its course and was driven towards the South Pole. It nearly got jammed in the ice. At the time, a great sea-bird, the Alban-oss, came through the snow-fog: it was received as a sign of good fortune. In truth, the ice split, a south wind sprang up behind, and the ship sailed northward again with the Albatross following behind- But evil thoughts took hold of the Mariner and with his bow and arrow he shot the bird of good omen.
For such an act of cruelty the ship is suddenly becalmed when it reaches the Line: the Albatross begins to be avenged. They have no fresh water on board and the crew nearly dies dl thirst. Suddenly they see a Skeleton-ship sailing towards them without tide or wind. Its ribs are seen as bars on the face of the setting sun. It has only two passengers onboard: Death and Life-in-death in the shape of a beautiful woman. The two play dice for the ship's crew: Life-in-death wins the Mariner and Death wins all the others. Then the Skeleton-ship disappears. One by one the sailors drop down on the deck. The loneliness of the Mariner in mid-ocean among the dead bodies of his shipmates is described. This is the punishment of the guilty Mariner. After a time the spell is broken, and the ship returns to England, but the Mariner is condemned for ever to travel from land to land and teach respect and love for all God's creatures.
Note how the poet describes the ship sailing southward; we feel the earth to be round. When the Albatross appeared, me ship turned and sailed northward till it reached the equator. The ship is becalmed; the sailors suffer from unbearable heat; the unusual silence makes the men feel lifeless. All the men on the ship are dead and the Mtfiner is left alone.
Coleridge was the most talented of the Lake Poets, but having no self-discipline, he did not give his talent full development. That's why his best and most beautiful poems, "Christabel" and "Kubia Khan", were left unfinished. He believed poetry could be written only under a mystical inspiration and the poet should follow his intuition wherever it might lead him. Coleridge practically stopped writing poetry in his early thirties, and later was famous chiefly as a critic.
We have said that the influence of the romanticists upon literature was very great. It lay in the new approach to life and ait They urged a return to nature. Among the-solitary lakes that mirrored the lonely hills they hoped to find "the perfect balance of man and nature", or "the natural state of man" as they called it. That's why so many of their poems praise nature. Wordsworth was a great master of description. A beautiful poem of his is: "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintem Abbey". When he describes the landscape, we not only feel his love for nature, but also his great alarm at its being spoiled by the invasion of industrialism.
Wordsworth expressed himself in plain and simple language, sometimes, even, with the danger of falling into flat prose.
The merit of the Lake School was that they introduced into poetry the short, straightforward, forceful words and constructions of everyday speech. They brought sound and colour into verse, drove out the artificial style of the previous age with its fashion of introducing characters of Greek mythology to express abstract ideas. These poets appreciated folklore and national art: they all insisted that poetry should be linked with the popular folk traditions of a. nation; should be stimulated by these traditions and should develop them.