One word does it. Just one word is enough. But it takes more than an ordinary imagination to select that word and put it to use.
Coleridge knew what he was about when he wrote one of the outstanding poems of the 19th century, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. Everybody knows a line or two of the poem. ‘Water, water everywhere Nor any drop to drink’ is in most people’s memory bank, even if the source is unknown. But the poem deserves more attention than that. It is an extraordinary feat of the imagination, overtopping anything written by his friend Wordsworth.
The poem is like a dream or perhaps a nightmare. It is one disturbing image after another. It has a structure not unlike ‘Revelation’ in the New Testament and it defies attempts to turn it into anything other than a mighty tug at a reader’s emotions. In plain unvarnished terms the poem could be said to be about death and destiny, about guilt and absolution. It could also be said to be about personal identity in the way that Kipling’s poem ‘Tomlinson’ prefigures a day of judgment when men give an account of themselves one by one. But Coleridge is dealing with symbols, with fears and longings. In this respect he is treading a path made out by the author of ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ in the time of Chaucer.
One word does it all. ‘Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide, wide sea!’ The mariner is quite alone with none to help him. Like the wandering Jew, he is condemned to gain a hearing and tell his story. He has had an experience of ultimate mystery and he knows there is more to life than can be readily explained.
Alice Meynell wrote a poem that hangs entirely on the word ‘alone’. She contemplates the mystery of the darkness following sunset on Good Friday, the hours when only Jesus knew what, after the din and fury of the day, was taking place. ‘And all alone, alone, alone He rose again behind the stone.’ We are taken further along the road by this short poem to the watershed event that was the death and resurrection of God’s Son. Alice Meynell did not have the formidable mind of Coleridge but she had within her grasp the one truth we need to know. It was in that one word ‘alone’.
We are taken back to the day when Jesus was alone at the outset of his ministry. In the temptation in the wilderness his encounter with the Devil finds him alone, facing the life’s work he was to undertake. His loneliness is accentuated by the way the story is rounded off: ’angels came and attended to his needs’ (Matthew 4.11). Alone, he trod the path for us.
WILFRED OWEN
A plaque in Christ Church, Birkenhead commemorates the war poet Wilfred Owen. He attended the church’s Sunday school and went on to be a vicar’s assistant in Berkshire. He was killed a week before the Armistice. The plaque carries words from his poem ‘Strange meeting’.
ENGLISH CLASSES
English classes (free) morning or evening are offered at St Cuthbert’s, Wood Green, London. Qualified teachers lead the classes, which are available morning or evening (on Zoom during lockdown).
WARFIELD SIX
Leading the Warfield, Berkshire group of six churches is Catharine Mabuza. There are strong connections with Nepal, the Philippines and Bulgaria, and Alpha is on the time-table. Warfield medieval parish church is said to be one of the finest in the county. Nearby Warfield Park estate is a 92-acre park home community established in 1947 in what was once part of Windsor Great Park.
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