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INTRODUCTION
The poem Love is composes in 1799 and is jointly published by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1800 in the second edition of their Lyrical Ballads. Coleridge attaches a great importance to this poem and actually say to one of his friends that the poem can be excelled but not imitated like his Ancient Mariner. Herford says, "The poem Love stands in somewhat the same relation to all previous ballads of love and chivalry as the Ancient Mariner" does to all previous tales of wonder. In both cases Coleridge's originality lies in the delicate and subtle psychology. As the sea-horrors are portrayed through the mind of the Mariner, so here we follow the romantic story of the knight and the Lady of the Land through the medium of the changing emotions which it excites in the guileless Genevieve."
The poet says that all the impulses that move the human heart help to feed the holy flame of love. He relates how once under the mystic moonlight, lying by the side of a ruined tower on an ancient mountain he was singing an ancient ballad. Genevieve, his lady love is standing by a statue and listening to his song. The song deal with the love of another but it reflects the poet's own love for his beloved. It is the story of a knight who goes mad due to the scorn of his beloved and who goes on wandering in the woods and the caves of the wild beasts, where he is tempted by the devil but did not yield. The knight has an occassion to save his lady love from the hands of the robbers who are bend upon outraging her as brutally as ever. There came a change in the lady who give up her scorn and cruelty to the knight and begin to nurse him with great tenderness. The knight get back his senses for a while but died very soon afterwards. When the poet is singing the last words of the dying knight, Genevieve is so deeply moved at heart that she at once confesses her love for the poet who win in the long run his bright and beauteous bride.
CRITICAL SUMMARY
All thoughts and feelings help in arousing love in the heart of a lover or beloved. All thoughts and feelings help in arousing love in the heart of a lover or beloved.
The Lover Remembers An Evening. The lover still remembers, an evening when he lay near a broken tower half-way up a hill. He met his beloved Genevieve there.
Genevieve Leaned against the Statue of a Knight. Genevieve leaned against the statue of a knight and listened to his sad and touching song. The Song Dealt with the Story of a Disappointed Knight.
The song sung by the lover dealt with the story of a disappointed knight. This knight courted a beautiful maiden for ten long years. She did not respond to his love. This knight felt disappointed and wandered aimlessly in forests and caves.
The Disappointed Knight went Mad. The disappointed knight went mad. One day, he came across a party of murderers who wanted to insult his beloved. He saved her from them. She was impressed by his courage and self-sacrifice. She nursed him in a cave but in vain. When the knight lay dying on forest leaves, he wants to say a few words by way of farewell to her.
Genevieve was Moved by this Story. When the lover goes to tell Genevieve what the dying knight said, he feels greatly agitated. Her heart melts with pity. The music, the sad story, the pleasant evening, all produces on Genevieve the effect which the lover desires.
Genevieve Surrendered Herself to Her Lover. She weeps with pity and delight. She blushes on account of love and shyness. She calls her lover by his name and embraces him. She confesses her love in an indirect manner.
The Lover Won the Heart of Genevieve. In this way the lover won the heart of Genevieve - the bright and beautiful bride.
DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Development of Thought
The poet says that all the impulses that move the human heart help to feed the holy flame of love. He relates how once under the mystic moonlight lying by the side of a ruined tower on an ancient mountain he is singing an ancient ballad. Genevieve, his lady love is standing by a statue and listening to his song. The song dealt with the love of another but it reflects the poet's own love for his beloved. It is the story of a knight who goes mad due to the scorn of his beloved and who goes on wandering in the woods and the caves of the wild beasts, where he is tempted by the devil but did not yield. The knight has an occasion to save his lady love from the hands of the robbers who is bend upon outraging her as brutally as ever. There came a change in the lady who give up her scorn and cruelty to the knight and began to nurse him with geat tenderness. The knight get back his senses for a while but died very soon afterwards. When the poet is singing the last words of the dying knight, Genevieve is so deeply moved at heart that she at once confesses her love for the poet who win in the long run his bright and beauteous bride.
Critical Appreciation and Interpretation
Love is a Lyrical Ballad. It was published in The Lyrical Ballads jointly issued by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1800. It has almost all the important features of old ballads. It is replete with simplicity of language and naivete of tone. It contains a story and it can be sung. In fact, it is a story as well as a song. It gives us a peep into the heart of the lover. This subjectivity of the poem makes it lyrical whereas the story of the Knight and the Lady of the Land makes it a ballad. Old ballads usually have tales of adventure for their theme. In this one, we find the handsome knight rescuing his sweetheart from a band of murderous ruffians. Old ballads are full of the feeling of love, hatred and pity. All the three feelings are present in this poem. The lover and the knight represent love. The Lady of the Land represents hatred, whereas Genevieve-pity. Again, like traditional ballads. Love is characterised by "rapidity of narration and a certain childlike naivete."
Love not only Possesses the Qualities of Traditional Ballads but of Modern Ones as Well. Modern ballad is only a literary development of the traditional form. Though it maintains the qualities of the traditional ballads, yet it makes its modernism evident in its tendency to greater elaboration, the enlargement of description and psychological interest, and a more finished style of art (Hudson). Love similarly has an abundance of psychological interest and possesses a finer style of art than the traditional ballads. Though Love has all the sterling qualities of old ballads, yet it is essentially modern and has nothing imitative about it.
Medievalism of the Poem. Love has a medieval atmosphere. The ruined tower, and the statue of the armed knight dominates the whole scene and make it look medieval. The hopeless love between the Lady of the Land and the Knight who is driven mad may be narrated by any poet of the Middle Ages. It reminds us of the poems of Wyatt and Surrey who always shows the beloved to be a disdainful mistress and the lover an entreating fool. The sight of a love-loin knight is very in the middle ages. In the poem we find the knight saving his sweetheart from a band of ruffians who are about to inflict 'shame worse than death upon her'. This action of the knight too reminds us of the good old days of chivalry. Thus the atmosphere of the poem is medieval.
Supernaturalism in the Poem. Usually Coleridge's ballads have an atmosphere of mystery and supernaturalism. But curiously enough Love has this element in a very small quantity. In stanza thirteen he mentions an evil spirit coming in the garb of an angel to tempt the knight:
There came and looked him in the faceAn angel beautiful and bright:And that he knew it was a FiendThis miserable Knight....
Except this solitary hint, there is nothing supernatural about the poem.
Love is a Psychological Poem. Shelley called Coleridge a 'subtle souled psychologist'. Coleridge shows this quality of his in this poem. Here we find the lover making a psychological approach to his sweetheart Genevieve. The lover rightly understands the mind of his beloved. He says:
Few sorrows hath she of her own,My hope My joy, my Genevieve.She loves me best, whenever I sing,The songs that make her grieve.
Therefore, he 'played a soft and doleful air', and sings 'an old moving story'. The lover know that his beloved can be persuaded only by sorrowful tales of love. He, therefore, sing the story of a knight who is turned insane by the scorn which his sweetheart showed him. In his song, he from time to time, hints at the parallelism between the love of the knight and his own. Genevieve is moved to pity for the knight and she is persuaded not to follow the example of the cruel Lady of the Land.
She wept with pity and delightShe blushed with love and virgin shameAnd like the murmur of a dreamI heard her breathe my name.
Thus it is through psychological approach, that the lover wins the heart of his bright and beauteous Genevieve.
Theme of the Poem. It has the usual theme of the love between a young man and a beautiful maiden. The poet wants to show that all ideas, all feelings and all joys which have the strength of moving a man's or woman's soul are the source of love. He rightly says:
All thoughts, all passions, all delightWhatever stirs this moral frame,All are but ministers of love,And feed his sacred flame.
In the story too, we find the feelings of pity for the knight which moves the soul of Genevieve and inspires love in her.
Technique of Love. The rhyme scheme of the poem is a b c b. The diction of the poem is seldom archaic. 'Doleful', and 'brand' in the sense of 'the sword' are two archaic words used by Coleridge in this poem. The poet initiates the old ballad technique by repeating some lines and expressions. The words:
She listened with a flitting blush,With downcast eyes and modest grace,appear twice. Again in stanza 4, we haveShe leant against the armed man,The statue of the armed knight.
Mr. J.H.F. Fowler, remarks: "The qualities that give The Ancient Mariner its high place in English Literature are largely present here also. There is the same revival of the simplicity of the ancient ballad; there is the same subtlety of psychological analysis, so foreign to the ancient ballad which stamps the poem as the work of a reflective philosopher. There is the same power of vividly representing a scene by a few strokes of the pen. There is the same fascination of melody, increasing the power of the poem upon us each time we read it."
Opinion of Lamborn and Wheeler about the Poem. They say: "The poem, though like everything of Coleridge's it contains gold, is not gold all through. Its first stanza is a statement, as imperishable as it is complete, concise and assured, of love's supreme and all-pervading power. But the narrative told in illustration is out of place here. The mere narration of events employs too many words, which is worse, poor words, that is words which have no value but the immediate one of conveying a meaning, without any secondary or more poetic suggestion. The music too of such verse must necessarily have the simple, freely moving rhythm which carries on the story easily and pleasantly but does not entrance our ear with its own subtleties and holds us back to listen to it. Much of it in this poem is mere jogtrot, which conveys meaning without reinforcing it or helping it to produce an emotional reaction to it". In all this, Love differs entirely from the Ancient Mariner which is not a narrative but a vision like Dante's. It is not told in verse but conjures up before us by the spell of music; scenes - if those can be called scenes which have no more to do with this world than the Book of Revelation. This story can be read with interest by anyone in his senses. But the story of Ancient Mariner is mere delirium to anyone who has not surrendered his mind to the intoxication of musical magic.
(Note. It is upto the students to weigh the contradictory statements made by J.H.F. Fowler on one hand and Messrs. Lamborn and Wheeler on the other. They shall adopt any view which appears congenial to their own appreciation of the poem).
Conclusion. This poem is matchless in its beauty and simplicity. The poet seems to abandon himself completely to the charms of love and romance. He is completely led by his heart with the melodies of his verse. The atmosphere is medieval and it reminds one of the legends of Mallory or the romances of, Spenser. The only thing which interferes with our perfect enjoyment of the poem is the excess of art on the part of the poet. This poem like the "Ancient Mariner" or "Kubla Khan" may be regarded as a dream poem. Every one of these poems bears a peculiar charm of atmosphere and music which are woven by the magic words, the strong emotions and romantic surroundings. It also reflects Coleridge's power of psychological analysis, which is a mark of the growth of his mind and the consummation of his art The poem reflects Coleridge's love which is at once warm and tender and also platonic or spiritual.
The metre of the poem is an imitation of the English ballad measure. The simplicity of its diction, the cadence of its rhymes are remarkable. The poem is an illustration how even from the simplest elements a romantic poet can build a lyrical ballad, which is not only a thing of beauty and music but also a thing of joy forever.