Earn It to Learn It

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The distinction between the two poets' philosophies is obvious: Wordsworth believes poetry is best delivered as a writing of commonplace life, written with simplistic language. He intends to make his readers comfortable by giving them that which is familiar and instructing them when they're at ease. Colerige doesn't play, though. He blatantly advocates using words with as much variation and creativity as possible, and we can see from his works that he certainly doesn't deliver the familiar comforts of home. I find his approach far more compelling that Wordsworth's. Colerige bends and challenges the mind more. Let's say you're reading a book. You know what every word means in every context it is used, every location described in flowery language can be seen out your window, and all you really have to think about is the moral of the story. How much are you actually learning? How much has your mind opened to creativity and a new outlook on the world? You might have come to better understand the value of nature and such, but has your thinking ability improved?

Colerige forces your mind to start inviting new concepts and helps expand your vocabulary while he's at it; "The Rhime of the Ancient Mariner" has those invaluable footnotes (side notes?) to get the meaning across without sacrificing the drama. The poem would've been a lot less entrancing if the Mariner had just said "Hey look y'all, it's a ghost ship!" I don't think I need to say why that short excerpt from "Kubla Khan" was mentally invigorating; Mary Robinson answered that for us. Of course you could say that Wordsworth's morals are more direct than Colerige's, but Colerige's morals are still there (especially in that "Rhime"). Having to work a bit harder for them is all part of learning, right?

P.S. I commented on Sophia and Michael's posts.

Comments

  1. Sophia ColbertOctober 16, 2017 at 3:16 PM

    I agree that having to dig into the text to find a moral can be very intellectually stimulating, but at the same time, there is something to be said for making a moral clear, concise, and easy to learn. For example, the book of Proverbs has clear, general morals that are easy to spot and apply to life. The stories in Judges, however, sometimes have deeper meanings than those at face value (Gideon was not trying to determine God's will when he laid out the fleece, rather he was trying to get out of what God told him to do). It all depends on the author's intentions and motivations. I think we should wrestle with difficult texts, but sometimes our brain just needs a break.

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