“They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise.”
Lines 331-334 from Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Burke defines vastness in terms of dimension. The ocean, for instance, might be considered sublime in that it is unfathomably vast in dimension. The inability to wrap one’s mind around it’s largess results, for some, in “no small terror”, which Burke would say only serves to enhance it’s essence of the sublime. If Burke feels that terror is a ruling principle of the sublime, then Coleridge has mastered it. There is picturesque horror presented throughout the entirety of ,The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in images of evil spirits, corpses coming to life, ghost ships moved not by wind in their sails but by some external power, and even in the Mariner himself. Even so, I would argue that the true sublime power of this poem is not in the poem itself but in the ability of the human mind to envision it all. I have never seen a corpse come to life and yet I had no trouble envisioning a ship deck full of cold, dead-eyed corpses suddenly rising and once again manning the ship. I have never seen a soul depart from a body and “dart to the Sun” (line 355), and yet, here I sit with an image of it happening, clear as day.
“Habituated to the Vast”, were the words Coleridge once used to describe his own mind. After reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, one can safely assume that the success of this poem relies heavily on the ability of the readers to send their own minds into “the Vast”. Coleridge is painting pictures of objects and events that are not actually ever present in reality. Without the ability to suspend one’s disbelief and fully submerge one’s mind into this imagined reality, the magic of the poem would be lost. The ocean may be unfathomably vast in dimension but the human mind is unfathomably vast in that it has no dimension. The knowledge that there is no true limit to what one’s mind can see or create is equally thrilling and terrifying. Is it not this juxtaposition that Burke says rules the sublime? Coleridge may summon the sublime through both terror and astonishment with his words, but it is the minds ability to realize this terror and astonishment that is truly sublime.
2 comments
Dk,
I have to say: WOW! This is an amazing analysis. I guess you were holding off the best work until the end.
Anyway, I like your selection of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” from Coleridge. There is a lot of terrifying images in there, indeed.
I must applaud you for this line: “Even so, I would argue that the true sublime power of this poem is not in the poem itself but in the ability of the human mind to envision it all.” You really hit the nail on the head with this, especially when you think about it in terms of height. The “vast dimension” in height is merely a number: 10 ft; 50ft; 100ft; but in majority, the human minds perceive it as a terrifying distance. And you really summed up my example into your last line: “Coleridge may summon the sublime through both terror and astonishment with his words, but it is the minds ability to realize this terror and astonishment that is truly sublime.”
This is just icing on the cake: “The ocean may be unfathomably vast in dimension but the human mind is unfathomably vast in that it has no dimension.” Wow, simple but at the same time elegantly complex to appreciate.
So, Ready to go skydiving? Ignore this (if necessary)
-Nhan
Great analysis DK. In a nutshell you have pretty much transported me into the snippets of what I found to be an exhaustively lengthy poem through this short synopsis with great relevance.