Wordsworth believed that the imagination is like that special touch of the poet who transforms the usual

in fantastic. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" The poem begins with the meeting between an old and a young man during the celebration of a marriage. The old man tells how during a sea voyage he killed for no reason, an albatross and from that moment his ship was cursed and cut off the crew. The old sailor, the only survivor, is condemned to return home, with a crew of undead animated by heavenly spirits. Only when the sailor sees the beauty of the sea snakes and blesses them, the curse is broken and the ship, led by a host of angels, returns to port, but the sailor will have to expiate the killing albatross, traveling from country to country to teach love and respect for all God's creatures. The mariner of Coleridge belongs to the series of legendary figures, like Cain or the Wandering Jew, who after committing a crime are forced to wander for an indefinite number of years to pay for his crime and be saved. qui sta sintetizzao su ci detto prima . Similarities between Coleridge and Wordsworth: return to the past, the poetical form of the ballad, nature, uses of immagination to trasform reality and supernatural elements. Both of them recollect the emotion in tranquillity, to think about the emotion and to start writing "a poem": the aim is to recreate an emotion similar to the one you have had, so that people who will read will experience a similar emotion. Differences between Wordsworth and Coleridge: Wordsworth made ordinary things extraordinary; Coleridge made extrardinary things real. - Wordsworth concentrated on simple things as ordinary language and situations; - Coleridge concentrated on supernatural events, exotic places and ancient harmony and old forms of poetry as alliterations, assonances, repetitions, simile and typical rhyme schemes. the English Romanticism English romanticism saw poetry as best suited to expressing emotional experience and individual feeling. Imagination gained a primary role in the process of poetic composition since it allowed the Romantic poets to see beyond the surface reality, to apprehend a truth beyond the powers of reason and to re-create and to modify the external world of experience. Hence, the role of the poet as a visionary prophet or as a teacher, whose task was to mediate between man and nature, to point out the evils of society, to give voice to ideals of beauty, truth, and freedom. The descriptions of natural elements and landscape mirrored the poets mood and feelings. Nature was regarded as a living force and, as the espression of God in the universe. The Romantic poets used more vivid and familiar words; they were less concerned with the demands of rhyme and metre; symbols assumed a vital role as the outer visible vehicles of the inner visionary perceptions. As for verse, there was a return to past forms such as the ballad, the sonnet; the lyric poems achieved a freedom, flexibility and intensity rarely equalled. Wordsworth and Coleridge were characterised by the attempt to theorise about poetry. While planning the Lyrical Ballads, they agreed that the former would write on the beauty of nature and ordinary things with the aim of making them interesting for the reader; Coleridge, instead, should deal with visionary topics, the supernatural, and mystery. The poets of the second generation experienced political disillusionment as regards the hopes raised by French Revolution which is reflected, in their poetry, in the clash between the ideal and the real. In other words, poetry was no longer regarded as an imitation of life, a mirror of reality, but coincided with the desire to challenge the cosmos, nature, political and social order.

As to Nature, unlike Wordsworth, Coleridge doesn't view nature as a moral guide or a source of consolation and happiness. His contemplation of nature is always accompanied by awareness of

the presence of the ideal in the real. His strong Christian faith, however didn't allow him to identify nature with the divine, in that form of pantheism in which Wordsworth believed. He rather sees nature and the material world in a sort of neo-platonic interpretation, as the reflection of the perfect world of "Ideas". Thus Coleridge believes that natural images carry abstract meanings.

The language: Coleridge usually uses an archaic language, rich in alliterations, repetitions and onomatopoeias, to produce a pleasant musical effect.

il Romanticismo Inglese Il romanticismo inglese vide la poesia come pi adatta ad esprimere l'esperienza legata alla sfera emotiva e i sentimenti individuali. Limmaginazione ebbe un ruolo primario nel in tutta la poesia romantica poich permetteva ai poeti di vedere oltre la superficialit della realt, di apprendere una verit che superava i poteri della ragione e di ricreare e modificare il modo esteriore dellesperienza. Da qui, il ruolo del poeta un poeta immaginario o un insegnante il cui compito era quello di mediare tra luomo e la natura, di evidenziare i mali della societ, di dar voce agli ideali di bellezza , verit e libert. La descrizione degli elementi naturali e del paesaggio rispecchiavano lo stato danimo e i sentimenti del poeta. La natura era considerata come una forza vivente e come lespressione di Dio nelluniverso. I poeti romantici usavano parole brillanti e familiari; erano meno interessati alle esigenze di rima e di metrica; i simboli assunsero un ruolo vitale . Per quanto riguarda le forme dei versi ci fu un ritorno a forme del passato, quali la ballata; il sonetto;

Wordsworth e Coleridge ebbero come peculiarit il tentativo di teorizzare sulla poesia. Mentre progettavano le Lyrical Ballads, concordarono che Wordsworth avrebbe scritto sulla bellezza della natura mentre Coleridge avrebe trattato argomenti legati alla sfera fantastica, al soprannaturale e al mistero. I poeti della seconda generazione subirono la depressione dovuta al fallimento della Rivoluzione Francese, che riflessa nella loro poesia, nello scontro fra lideale e il reale. Natura: diversamente da Wordsworth, Coleridge non osserva la natura come una guida morale o una fonte di consolazione e di felicit. Il suo contemplare la natura accompagnato sempre dalla consapevolezza della presenza dellideale nel reale. La sua fede cristiana forte, comunque non gli permette di identificare la natura con la divinit, in quella forma del pantheismo in cui Wordsworth ha creduto. Piuttosto vede la natura ed il mondo materiale in una specie di neoplatonica interpretazione, come la riflessione del mondo perfetto "ideale". Cos Coleridge crede che le immagini naturali nascondono significati astratti. Il linguaggio: Coleridge usa di solito un linguaggio arcaico, ricco di allitterazioni, ripetizioni ed onomatopee, per produrre un effetto musicale piacevole.

nature in wordsworth and Coleridge Wordsworth is the precursor of the concept of romantic landscape, he believes: ethics in the idea of Nature, in the passion with which he feels it, and the simplicity with which he describes it. the connection between the poet and the outside world is such that aspects of nature become ways of his conception of the world. In "Dance" the poet tells the passions and feelings of humble people, such as farmers, destined to suffer because of their condition, which he describes with ordinary language. Tintern Abbey is perhaps the best ballad that expresses the importance to him of nature

("earth's diurnal course"). in The Recluse, the author states that the poetic creativity is born only in communion with nature, expressed through the memories of what has been experienced;

The Romantic movement that began in Germany and England towards the end of the 18th century is considered to have begun with the publication of the Lyrical Ballads in 1798. This work, written by two of the most well-known Romantic poets Wordsworth and Coleridge, is a sort of manifesto of the movement. The Lyrical Ballads established the principles underlying the Romantic literary movement in England. The main themes of Romantic literature are: A return to Nature The cult of sensibility and melancholy ; A cult of the primitive; A love of the strange, the exotic, the sublime ( was an idea associated with intense emotion); An interest in the Middle Ages and Gothic architecture: An insistence on imagination The first generation of Romantic poets chose to live in the Lake District (Scotland) for it offered the sublime. They was inspired by the nature and imagination. The second generation of Romantic poets involved themselves in movements to promote the cause of freedom and independence. The decision to Wordsworth and Coleridge publish Lyrical ballads and distinguish their tasks (one was in charge of the "natural" and the other the "supernatural") shows the existence of two opposing trends between the romantic poets, one to the real world, the other to a transcendent element Wordsworth, William - The "Lyrical ballads", the english romantic manifesto The Lyrical Ballads is considered as the manifesto that marked the entry of the romantic movement in England. Wordsworth wrote the preface of it, introducing the directives of the poetic romantic: Initially, the poet opens saying that he proposed to himself to treat incidents and situations of the common life, reporting or, describing them using the imagination through the which the ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way. Him decided to choose the humble and rustic life, because in these conditions the man isn't slave of the social conventions and he can express the own feelings, emotions or thoughts in the better possible way. And just for this reason he chose to write adopting the common language, because being simple and not elaborate it is easier to be understood. Going on to the reading of the preface, we notice a criticism towards the philosophers, which are accused by Wordsworth to write in a pompous way only to appear superior. At the end the author exposes his considerations respect the feature of the poet and of the poetry, defining the poet as a man speaking to men, because being the poet endowed with an anomalous sensibility and of a great knowledge of the human nature in comparison to the other men, though he is subject to the common problems he can teach to the other men. He defines, instead the poetry a spontaneous flow of feelings that, after having been meditated and connected in tranquillity are transcribed in the form of poetry.