Lyrical Ballads – Critical Readings

The Seraphs in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Gustav Dore

CR Episode 18: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part II

14 October 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel discusses the second half of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, with particular attention given to the theology of the Mariner's sin, contrition, and absolution, and the relation of that theology to and within the Romantic conception of Nature.

The Albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Gustave Dore

CR Episode 17: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part I

7 October 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel discusses the first three parts of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, proposing the Ancient Mariner as a figure in transition from the Enlightenment to Romanticism, and including overviews of Critical moves and an analogy to T. S. Eliot.

CR Episode 16: Lyrical Ballads, Part II

30 September 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel begins to cross over from Wordsworth to Coleridge in the second of three episodes focused on Lyrical Ballads, addressing the role of nature, emotional state, and parenthood in both Wordsworth's "The Mad Mother" and Coleridge's "The Nightingale".

CR Episode 15: Lyrical Ballads, Part I

23 September 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel discusses Romanticism and begins a three-week examination of selected poems from Lyrical Ballads, the experimental collection by Wordsworth and Coleridge. This week's selections are Wordsworth's "The Female Vagrant" and "Tintern Abbey".