Eolian Harp Flashcards
Context
Inspired to write poem after visiting new house in Cleveland with fiancèe Sara Fricker
Continued to work on it after marriage and idealised view of relationship reflected in it
Despite publishing it 1796, Coleridge continued to consider and revise it - line 26+33 were added in 1817
Poem was inspired by music of aeolian harp - named after Aeolius the God of winds
this was a 17th century invention consisting of a sound box with strings stretched over it
These vibrated in the wind to form different chords - the music of nature
A01
Overall structure
4 stanzas of unrhymed iambic pentameter, direct address, blank verse
‘My pensive Sara! thy soft check reclined’
Thus on my arm most soothing sweet it is
Conversational poem
A01 poetic structure
Why is biblical language fitting for Coleridge to use
He was the son of a vicar
A01 poetic structure
Why is the style of poetry ironic
Conversational
But Sara hasn’t much of a voice
Her response is not given, just implied
‘More serious eye’
It is as if her responses isn’t important
Just Coleridge love and lust for her
To have sex w her - archave and old fashioned
‘Maid half yielding to her lover’
A01
What setting and atmosphere is created in stanza 1
Eolian harp
Setting resembles Eden, pure - innocent and natural
Beauty like wife
‘White-flowered jasmin’
‘Broad-leaved Myrtle’
-flowers ^ symbolise innocent and love - chastity
Peaceful atmosphere
‘The stilly murmur of the distance sea/ tells us of silence’ - peaceful and promising
A01
What does Coleridge first compare the music of the lute too and why
To the sensual movement between 2 lovers
‘Half yielding as she is caresses by her lover’
He wants sex
What is the significance of the 2nd comparison which Coleridge makes between lute and it’s music
A01
As the music grows stronger- he compares harp to entrancing sounds coming from fairy land
The burst of melody propels his imagination beyond the literal, into the sublime like feelings/experience of childhood
Lines 26-33 are lines Coleridge added later
How is harp described and how makes him feel
Coleridge references creative power and spiritual force
Coleridge’s soul rises above seemingly sublime movement in the cottage to the spiritual inspiration he believes fills all creation
Man and nature is one
‘Power’
‘Joyance’
‘Love’
Eolian harp contains many contrasting images and concepts such as
Physicality and spirituality
Eg
‘Pours such sweet upbraiding’
‘As twighlight Elgin’s make’
‘O the one … do filled’ lines 25-29
What are the 2 contrasting views of natural world Coleridge explores in 2nd half of poem
Pantheism and Christianity
What is pantheism
The belief that all reality is divine
Therefore, rather than having a notion of God as seperate entity, all nature is spiritual
‘At once the Soul of each, and God of all?’
How is Christianity explored in 2nd half of poem
That all he has, his house, finance and landscape
Are
Gifts from God- creator
‘Gave me Peace, and this Cot, and thee, heart honoured maid!’
In stanza 3- what does Coleridge feel when looking at landscape
Compares sun to diamonds on sea
‘Like diamonds on the main’
‘Uncalled and undetailed’ - thoufht imagination which he experienced through his brain- similar to those the poet experienced after hearing harp
How does he metaphorically compare lute to his pantheism experience stanza 4
‘What if all animated nature/
Be but organic harps diversely frames…at once the Soul of each, and God of all’
- soul and mind
How does tone and Coleridge’s language change in stanza 5 when he re-evaluates views in terms of Christianity
In the last stanza- the language Coleridge uses changes and becomes more solemn - piety
‘Humbly’ ‘homily’
As if we should be as grateful as he is
He prays to God to form his heart and mind in according to God’s own thinking so he can remain engrossed into the thoughts of he almighty
