Sorry to rejoin this thread rather late. I haven't read Empson's comments on
the Ancient Mariner, but I can't accept his view of the notes. Not decoy,
surely, but counterpoint. And they seem to me to fit well with similar
strategies in the romantic (or post-romantic?)novel, the multiple narrators
of Confessions of a Justified Sinner or Wuthering Heights. The fact that the
notes appear in parallel to the text suggests all sorts of possibilities. At
any rate, I've never seen the notes as the older Coleridge telling us what
to think, but rather some figure like Hogg's Editor, trying to make his own
partial sense of a text that remains mysterious.

Matthew Francis
[mailto:[log in to unmask]
01443 482856


-----Original Message-----
From: Martin J. Walker [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 22 April 2094 11:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Grime of the Ancient Mariner & Sappho


"The old Coleridge has ratted on the young one" expresses in very much
reduced _nuce_ the rationale for Empson's decision (with David Pirie) to
omit the glosses - not notes, which come at the bottom or the end (as in
_The Waste Land_ , where they also have what one might call a decoy
function) - provided with the later editions of _The Ancient Mariner_, the
point being that there is no "crime" as such, though the sanctimonious Xtian
additions and changes would exhort us there is. Empson and Pirie's edition
first appeared (I think) in 1973 (Schocken Books) and contains what is for
me the most convincing comments on the poem. This is probably Ricks's
attitude, too - he, after all, has more or less donned the mantle of Empson
the critic, who as a poet, by the way, wrote a good many more good poems
than "Missing Dates" and whose poetry nearly always sings, even if the
pre-Martian conceits are often too clever (for me). I wish I could do more
than quote phrases like "ambiguous gifts, as all gods give must be", but my
Empson isn't here, alas, and my memory is failing. "Waiting for the end,
boys, waiting for the end" - not yet, oh LadyLord, not yet. ("And then we
say goodbye" you wrote in your affecting poem, Douglas - some say nothing,
of course, because they've forgotten. "Poise of my hands reminded me of
you" - would be nice in old age too.) - I agree with Robin and David that "A
Letter to ..." and "Ode to Dejection" are to all intents and purpose two
poems, to be appreciated differently.
To jump to another thread, the following (mis?)appropriates Sappho for
heterosexual purposes (lesbian members may go "What a sap!Phooey!) and I
confess to stealing phrases from a modern translation in copyright, so hope
nobody will give me away.(It was written for another occasion than Easter,
but so what. The refrain refers to an eponymous CD anthology I found and
gave my partner, whose name is Marina.)
                               SORRY, SAPPHO
                  It seems to me no man has ever been a
                 god, who was not allured by your demeanour,
                 then, drawing near your sweetness, found himself
                                 in bed with Marina.

                  The greatest champion in love's arena
                 would thrill so to your laugh, your glance that's keener
                  than the wild west wind, he might lose himself
                                 in bed with Marina.

                  For it's then my voice deserts me, I'm greener
                 than grass, a step away from death, my Queen, a
                   delicate fire under my skin-self
                                 in bed with Marina.

                  So far this Valentine has been much cleaner
                 than my flushed heart desires - in your carina
                 my lust would live and die and find my self
                                 in bed with Marina.

(To anyone who's read this far: only Webster's gives sufficient definitions
of "carina" for this.)
Cheers, Martin


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