Samuel Taylor Coleridge This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison, 1797 Prophets of Nature, we to them will speak, A lasting inspiration, sanctified By reason, blest by faith; what we have loved, Others will love, and we will teach them how. (W’wth, The Prelude)

What is your favourite line from ‘This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison’ and why?

Why is ‘Lime Tree’ a Romantic poem?

Some possible answers... W’wth: “The principal object...was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them throughout...in a selection of language really used by men, and at the same time to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination... Poetry is the image of man and nature...The poet writes under one restriction only – namely that of the necessity of giving immediate pleasure to a human being possessed of that information which may be expected of him...as a man...it is a task easy to him who looks at the world in the spirit of love...Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity.” (Preface to LB, 1802) STC: “’What is poetry?’...The poet, described in ideal perfection, brings the whole soul of man into activity...He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity that blends and (as it were) fuses each into each by that synthetic and magical power to which I would exclusively appropriate the name of imagination. This power, first put in action by the will and understanding, and retained under their irremissive, though gentle and unnoticed control...reveals itself in the balance of reconcilement of opposite or discordant qualities; of sameness with difference...the idea with the image...judgement ever awake and steady self-possession, with enthusiasm and feeing profound or vehement...still subordinates art to nature.” (Biographia Literaria 1817)

Why is ‘Lime Tree’ a conversational poem? Characteristics of a conversational poem Poems of friendship Changing thoughts, sensations, feelings Spoken by the poet in an identifiable location, usually outdoors Conversation with a silent auditor STC: “Poems of this kind & length ought to be coiled with its tail around its head.” Evidence from ‘Lime Tree’

Why is ‘Lime Tree’ an example of Lyric poetry? Characteristics of Rom. lyric poetry Poetic voice of the individual self; ‘I’ embodied virtues of sensibility or original genius Expresses the individual consciousness which is infinite in depth and complexity Lyric dramatises a self that is deep thinking and deep feeling, involving – introspection, – Self analysis – Self display Brief, passionate, personal Lyric associated with exalted and unusual states of mind Themes of lyric – Insight – Faces up to loss – Moral decision – Resolves an emotional problem The lyric community e.g. ‘Washing Day’ by AL Barbauld Evidence from ‘Lime Tree’ Dramatises a mind examining itself, reasoning about own feelings and faculties and arriving at a rational general truth

What does ‘Lime Tree’ say about Romantic nature? Some ideas to think about W’wth and STC: reason is part of the imagination STC: nature is a language to be understood W’wth: “Nature never did betray/The heart that loved her” (Tintern) STC: “In nature there is nothing melancholy.” (The Nightingale, 1798) W’wth: “His purpose is to reveal what a human-centred world, economically and socially preoccupied often cannot see: the presence of a suprahuman spirit.” (McGann in McCalman p. 273) W’wth’s nature is a positive contrast to urban society but feels a responsibility for the human suffering of the urban dweller and the rural poor; loves nature with an awareness of human suffering W’wth faith in nature is hard won through doubts and anxieties Some links to ‘Lime Tree’

What is the relationship of ‘Lime Tree to Romantic ideas about the imagination? Some quotations to think about For STC imagination is a sharing in the divine W’wth and STC: reason is part of the imagination “the imagination is the mental power through which the world of the understanding is opened up to participate in the spiritual intuitions of reason.” (Gregory in Roe, p. 107) “the religious person recognises divine mystery in material and linguistic symbols” Imagination enables participation in a sacramental universe The aim of the Coleridgean imagination is to lose and find all self in God; to enter a larger world of truth and a vision of the infinite Without imagination’s transforming attention nature remains an inanimate, cold dead world. Some links to ‘Lime Tree’ Theme of imagination’s growth through memory

Some language techniques in ‘Lime Tree’ Structure Blank verse – least different to everyday conversation Symbolism Lyric Tone Intertextual reference Contrast Detailed description Enjambment ‘Prospect poem’ – loco-descriptive plus comment on eco/pol/national ‘prospects’

Add to creative writing wiki – education of a child in nature al la Hartley Coleridge and Wordsworth’s Basil Montague Minor theme – urban suffering – see Blake – connect to rural poor – see poems by W’wth in Lyrical Ballads.