Essay about Natural Descriptions in Coleridges and Lord...

Natural Descriptions in Coleridges and Lord Byrons Texts Works Cited Missing Two closely related texts, one that weve studied in this class and one that we havent, that handle natural description differently are Coleridges The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Lord Byrons Manfred. Both of these texts central characters have experienced trauma, and their portrayal of their environments reveal the effects that the events have left on them. While Coleridges mariner is unable to consolidate his past and is relegated to constantly relive it, Byrons Manfred has protected himself from his unnamed vice by distancing himself from his feelings and environment. Obvious parallels exist between the poems, but what I found most striking†¦show more content†¦This image accomplishes two things: 1) It tells the reader how he views himself, comparing himself to a thousand thousand slimy things (l 237). 2) And it shows how he views the outside world, as a corrupted, threatening environment. These descriptions reflect the events well enough to determine that the mariner is attempting to accurately relive/retell the events. While making it sound as if its for the benefit of those that hes telling, the arbitrariness of selecting the audience and the ambiguity of the storys message discredit the mariners suggestion and imply that the stories retelling is for the mariners benefit. Again, Coleridges mariner and Byrons Manfred share in their experiences of trauma but differ in their attempts to overcome it. The psychological analogy that working through trauma mirrors the habituation of an event can explain this difference. By repeatedly attempting to experience the trauma, the mariner tries to get use to his past to reconcile with his emotions. Manfred has successfully completed this process. The downfall with habituation is that you eventually become desensitized to that stimuli and therefore lose a connection with the environment, which is exactly Manfreds situation. The descriptions in Byrons text seem, largely, distant emotionally and physically. He doesnt attempt to revisit hisShow MoreRelated Survival and Love in Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain Essay example3119 Words   |  13 Pagestops tasseling,†¦ a glowing parlor hearth, pumpkins shining in the fields, laurels blooming on the hillsides, ditch banks full of orange jewelweed, white blossoms on dogwood, purple on redbud. Everything coming around at once. (445) This intense description of Inman’s vision at death is very much like any Romantic poet’s vision of the world. It can be compared to Wordsworth’s â€Å"Tintern Abbey† to Shelley’s â€Å"Mont Blanc† because of its meticulous attention to detail and its adoring view of nature’s gifts