Romantic (with a capital “R” ) Literature

Romanticism: 1800-1850 The Romantic era was a time when all areas of art—music, literature, painting—underwent a great change: Rather than focusing on and valuing the rational, this movement promoted: emotions, individualism, nature, and a glorification of the past. Part of this movement included the formation of a new genre of literature, called the Gothic.

Supernatural and Gothic Literary Themes Supernatural motifs appear throughout literature but are most prominent in the literary genre labeled "Gothic," which developed in the late eighteenth-century and is devoted primarily to stories of horror, the fantastic, and the "darker" supernatural forces. “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” includes many elements of the Gothic genre.

Gothic literature derives its name from its similarities to the Gothic medieval cathedrals, which feature a majestic architectural style with often savage or grotesque ornamentation The vaulting arches and spires of Gothic cathedrals reach wildly to the sky as if the builders were trying to grasp the heavens; and the cathedrals are covered with a profusion of wild carvings depicting humanity in conflict with supernatural forces—demons, angels, gargoyles, and monsters.

Gothic literature often focuses on: the unknown (which often leads to the grotesque) confrontation of supernatural or inexplicable forces in either the cosmos or the human soul Gothic literature pictures the human condition as an ambiguous mixture of good and evil powers that cannot be understood completely by human reason.

Common Romantic and Gothic Motifs Nature, and especially nature as a mirror of a character’s emotional state (a violent storm could signal inner struggle in a character) In our story, reverence for nature even takes on a religious quality Signs/Omens/Dreams/Supernatural events There are always indications before something momentous happens!

Multiple narrative or spiral narrative will often be used. think “story within a story”

“RIME OF THE Ancient Mariner” Written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and published in 1798. The poem is a lyric ballad: “lyric” refers to poetry about personal experience or emotion “ballad” refers to poetry that tells a narrative story with characters and plot

So, buckle up and settle in; “RAM” is one weird ghost story! Romantics loved the past, so Coleridge deliberately uses a poetic format and language that sounds like writing from a past time: The poem is written in quatrains (stanzas of four lines) with a rhyme scheme (ABCB). Each line is written in our old friend, the iamb (short syllable, long syllable: Be-low the church, be-low the hill, Be-low the light-house top) So, buckle up and settle in; “RAM” is one weird ghost story!