The Shadow Cast by Wordsworth

Abstract

Wordsworth’s continuing response to the challenge laid down by the “Ancient Mariner,” in poems not connected to it in an obvious way, is seen as an effort to contain (or bury) the questions raised. Matters discussed include Wordsworth’s odd treatment of the “Mariner” in Lyrical Ballads 1800 vol. 1 and his continuing negative allusions to it in the three poems he selected to open vol. 2. Separately published poems by Wordsworth, The White Doe of Rylstone and Peter Bell, are likewise read alongside his critical pronouncements as further reflections/responses to matters raised by Coleridge’s poem. They are of interest less because of Coleridge’s reaction than because Wordsworth eventually set the standard by which the “Mariner,” and indeed Coleridge’s whole achievement as a poet, would come to be judged.

…we begin to suspect, that there is, somewhere or other, a radical Difference [in our] opinions.

S.T. Coleridge ¹