"The Haunted Beach" by Mary Robinson

In her poem “The Haunted Beach” Mary Robinson expresses important details and symbolism through repetition of words or phrases throughout the poem. The first word that is repeated is “Hover’d” and in both instances it is used to describe the birds which are surrounding the Fisherman’s hut. For something to be hovering one would picture it as looming perhaps in a malicious or dark way. Robinson could be using this word to enhance the notion of the Fisherman’s looming guilt about the murder. It is constantly around him and screaming out so that it is always heard and never forgotten. The word “bound” and closely related to it “wrapped” are also repeated in the poem. In the second stanza, “bound” describes the weeds on the crags, and in the third stanza the cliff is “wrapped” in shadow. In the final stanza Robinson directly says that the Fisherman is “Bound by a strong and mystic chain,” (Line 77). These descriptions serve to relate the Fisherman to his setting; he shall now remain solitary and is bound to the landscape like so many other parts of it are bound to each other. The crags cannot escape the weeds, the shadows engulf even the high cliffs, and the Fisherman is tied by some unseen force to this beach forever. This omnipresent bondage elicits a sense of hopelessness and of being doomed to suffrage.

Click on the link below of to see a video of hovering birds, its eerie!
Creepy Hovering Birds

"Sonnet III: To A Nightingale" (and all Songstresses)

In this sonnet, Charlotte Smith is intimately identifying herself with the Nightingale. In the first two stanzas, she contemplates what could be the cause of the bird’s sad state and attempts to translate its song as any poet would. The final 6 lines are the most important, for this is where she questions if the Nightingale’s sorrow may come from the same sources as her own. In Smith’s “Sonnet I” she expresses the sources of her pain are “mourning friendship, or unhappy love” (Line 12), this is again repeated here in this sonnet when she asks the Nightingale if it has been wronged by friends or is suffering from disastrous love. She is attempting to establish an intimate and meaningful connection with the bird as if she is hoping they are more similar than appearances would suggest and that they can understand each other. The final two lines read “Ah! Songstress sad! That such my lot might be, to sigh and sing at liberty—like thee!” The imperative word here is “songstress” for the Oxford English Dictionary defines songstress as: a) A female singer; a poetess. And b) A female singing-bird. Smith used this word as the key to ultimately fuse her identity with that of the Nightingale, for they are both sad songstresses. The Nightingale can turn sorrow into song, and she can turn sorrow into poetry. Therefore, they both suffer in life and suffer more through their abilities to produce art, and such is the lot of a songstress.

Recommended External Links:

1) Nightingale Song
2) Evanescence - My Immortal

Both of these songs are very melancholy and resemble each other very closely. I recommend listening to them together as well, at some points the similarities in sound and pitch are cool.

"Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress" by William Wordsworth

A very important aspect of this sonnet is the symbolism of the tear. I believe Wordsworth uses the tear as a symbol of “virtue”. The tears of Helen Maria Williams are introduced in the first line of the poem as “She wept” and this is the only place in the poem where Williams is referenced even though her name is in the title. Though Wordsworth is a fanatic of Williams and her work, the only detail about her that matters to him is her tears, which symbolize virtues in her and therefore her sensibility, which Wordsworth believes to be her most superior quality. It is her tears/virtue/sensibility that elicits in him such an erotic and intimate response which could be likened to that of falling in love. He is in love with her ability to feel the pain and suffering of others. The line that provides the most proof of this symbolism is line 9: “That tear proclaims – in thee each virtue dwells,” To shed tears over the distress of others is a sign of a virtuous person and each tear is physical proof of their sensibility. The Oxford English Dictionary defines virtue as “The power of operative influence inherent in a supernatural or divine being; and act of superhuman or divine power”. To Wordsworth, the tears of Helen Maria Williams prove her virtue and give her a divine, superhuman quality which fascinates him. In her own poem “To Sensibility”, Williams personifies Sensibility itself as a goddess. However, Wordsworth takes this belief a step further by saying that anyone who expresses sensibility is also divine, especially Helen Maria Williams.

"Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey": Another Expostulation?

It seems that within the poem “Tintern Abbey” Wordsworth is making yet another expostulation. However, this one is not against books, but against Christian religion. Wordsworth uses words and phrases that are commonly used in the Christian church to instead speak of nature. In lines 110-112 he refers to nature as “The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being.” This seems to parallel when Christians speak of god as their rock (anchor), healer (nurse), and shepherd (guide and guardian). Wordsworth also uses exact phrases which when heard, imply that one is speaking to their God such as “For thou art with me” (line 115) and “How often my spirit turned to thee!” (line 58). In many ways this poem reads like a church sermon. He purposely places words such as “prayer”, “faith” and “pastoral” within the text reaffirming its religious undertones. Also, near the end of the poem lines 153-156 say: “I...A worshiper of Nature…Unwearied in that service: rather say with warmer love, oh! With far deeper zeal of holier love!” It is here that Wordsworth comes right out to say that he has made Nature (with a capital “N”) his religion and it reads to me as if he is saying that worshiping nature is more pleasing and fuller of love than that of typical religious worship. Perhaps he feels that the words used in church to speak of a man-created God and the Bible are better suited to be applied to the spirit of Nature, for it was created without man’s influence and is the true source of our existence.

Vatican vs. Avatar the movie
This link is an article that gives a little insight into the conflict between Christian religions and Pantheism (worship of nature)