Wow, great response!
[quote]Originally posted by Len Krisak:
But ... nothing that is weak or bad about this effort of
Coleridge's (or the starting lines from Marvell) derives
from the use of rhymed couplets. To say so comes dangerously close to the notion that certain meters and/or
stanzaic schemes, etc., are mimetic and/or appropriately expressive of, only certain kinds of subject, theme, or feeling--
a doctrine I think false.
Len, I didn't mean to imply that some meters/etc only have one use, but I think that meters/etc aid, deepen, heighten the subject, theme, feelings (or else why use them). As Pope wrote, "the sound must seem an echo to the sense" (a good practice, though not the only practice). In the case of Coleridge's "poem", I think the rhymed couplets do make the sentimentality just that much more cloying. I also realize that perceptions of metrical patterns and their effects to some extent can be culturally determined. The 18th cent. found the rhymed couplet satisfying, sophisticated, and adaptable to many uses. I think most today find the rhymed couplet less so.
Wendy V,
I agree that Wilbur controls the sentimentality fairly well. The thing with the bird though, hmm. After reading and rereading the poem, it strikes me that one thing that helps him control the sentimentality is that there is some self-awareness on the part of the narrator as to the danger of sentimentality. Coleridge's narrator seems unaware. Based on STC's work in general, I think he was likely a very sentimental man in life. One point I made back in December was that sentimetality has a social dimension: what is sentimental in public (or in print) isn't so much in private. As Alan also noted, Coleridge could get away with such sentimentality then, but a poetic reputation today would be tarnished by a similar piece.
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