The Influence of the Pop Ballad

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The Influence of the Popular Ballad on Wordsworth and ColeridgeAuthor(s): Charles Wharton StorkReviewed work(s):Source: PMLA, Vol. 29, No. 3 (1914), pp. 299-326Published by: Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/456924 .

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XIV.-THE INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BAL-LAD ON WORDSWORTH AND COLERIDGEAlthoughbothWordsworthnd Coleridge were stronglyinfluencedby the popular ballad, they were attractedbythis form for very differenteasons and affected y it in

very differentways. The one point in common s thatthis influencewas in bothcases mainly for good. Words-worthwas drawn to theballad by its directness nd sim-plicity of style, and by the fact that it often treats ofthe lower classes of men in what Rousseau would havecalled a natural state of society. Coleridge took up theballad for a nearly oppositereason; i. e., because of itsremoteness rom modern ife, a remoteness hat left himfree play for his imagination. Thus, oddly, Wordsworthcultivated the ballad be,caiuse t had once been close tocommon ife; Coleridgebecause it was now remote fromcommon ife and gave him a form remarkably usoeptibleof that strangenesswhichthe romantic genius habituallyadds to beauty. Wordsworth referred he domestic,oroccasionally the sentimental-romantic,allad; Coleridgemarkedly dheredto the supernaturalballad.As the subject is rathercomplex for a brief surv,ey, hefollowing arrangementwill be adopted: to examine ineach author separatelythe influence of the ballad, firstgenerally nd in relationtohis theory f poetry;, econdly,in detail as to the subject, treatment, nd formof thepoetry tself.At the outset we encounterWordsworth'sprefaces tothe Lyrical Ballads and Coleridge's attemptsto explainthemin his ]3iographiaLiteraria. Wordsworth's heoryof poetryhas been such a mootedquestion that we are299

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300 CHARLES WIIARTON STORKcertainto overemphasizeis statementf it unlesswenotewhat he himself hought f the Prefaces. In aside-note on the manuscriptf BarronField's Memoirsof theLife and PoetryofWilliamrWordsworthhepoetasserts:" I never areda straw boutthe theory,' ndthe preface' waswrittenttherequest fMIr.Coleridge,out of sheergoodnature." And again: "I neverwasfondofwriting rose." Coleridge,oo,2 laimsthePre-faceas " halfa childofmyownbrain." We maypauseto notethat twas rather nfair f thephilosopher-criticto tempthis colleague ntodisadvantageousround ndthenfall uponhim.WhatinfluenceheReliqueshad uponWordsworthtmaynotbe easyto determine;hathe felt uLchn influ-ence s proved ythefollowingassage:3 " I do not hinkthat there s an able writern verseof thepresent aywhowouldnotbe proud o acknowledgeisobligationsothe Reliques ; I know hat t is so withmyfriends; nd,formyself, am happyon thisoccasion omakea publicavowalofmyown."We maysafelv ssert hatthe nfluencefballadnar-rative reatmentponWordsworth'sonceptionf poetrywas veryslightand very ndirect. He wrotebuLt ewrealballads, hough e wrote goodmany oems ecalledballads. His theoryfpoetry learly ndrepeatedlyis-avows heonlypurpose orwhich trueballadcanexist,niz.,heeffectiveelling f a dramatic tory or ts ownsake. The moving accident is not my trade;To freezethe blood I have no ready arts:

1Letters ftheWordsworthamily, d.Knight,Vol. III, p. 121.2 Coleridge's etters ditedbyErnestHartleyColeridge, . 386.'Essay-SRupplemenftaryo the Preface, 815. ProseWorksof Wil-liamWordsworth,d.Knight,Vol. II, p. 247.



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPIULAR BALLAD 301'Tis mydelight, alone in summer shade,

To pipe a simple song forthinking hearts.4Again, speaking of theWhite Doe, he writes: "I didnot thinkthepoem could everbe popular just (qy. first?)because therewas nothing n it to excitecuriosity,ndnextbecause the main catastrophewas not a material but anintellectual one." All the action proceedingfrom thewill of the chief agentsis " fine-spun nd unobtrusive";Emily " is intended to be loved for what she endures."Let thedramatist crowd his scene withgrossand visibleaction"; but let the narrativepoet " see if thereare novictories n theworldof spirit," let himbringout the in-terest n " thegentlermovements nd milder appearancesofsociety nd social intercourse,r thestillmore mild andgentle solicitationsof irrational and inanimate nature."Wordsworth decries the qualities of writing which" startle the world into attentionby their audacity andextravagance" or by " a selection and arrangementofincidentsby which the mind is kept upon the stretch fcuriosity,and the fancy amused withoutthe trouble ofthought."Other passages could be added, but the foregoingwillsuffice o showwhy WVordsworth'sallads as ballads areunsatisfying. His entiretheory which, at least in thiscase, underlay his practice) was opposed to the methodofthe popular ballad. The ballad depends upon action,Wordsworthupon descriptionand relection; the balladis objective and impersonal,WordsworthmaintainsT thatthepoet shouldtreat of thingsnot " as theyare," but " asthey seem, to exist to the senses, and to the passions."

' Hart-Leap Well, opening stanza of Part Second.6Letters, III, pp. 466, 467.6Prose Works, II, p. 253.TIdem, II, p. 226.



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302 CHARLES WHARTON STORKConsequentlythe ballad proceeds,as ProfessorGummeresays,8by a " leaping and lingering method,holdingtheattentionby rapid movement, uspense,and adequate cli-max; whereas Wordsworth disbelieves in " gross andviolent stimulants and says10 that in his poems " thefeeling thereindevelopedgives importanceto the actionand situation, nd not the action and situationto thefeel-ings." The ballad is unconscious,existing in and foritself; but in Wordsworth's pinion11poetry houldhavea purposeand shouldbe theproductof a mind whichhasthoughtong and deeply.In generalwe may say thatno other of the greatEng-lish poetswas by temperament o incapable of writingagood ballad as Wordsworth. All that he got fromthesubject matterof theballad was the idea of attachinghisdescriptionsand reflections o a story, or, as it oftenproved,to an incident. What, then,were these " obligations" to the ballad which the poet was so careful toacknowledgeThe truth eemstobe thatWordsworth's enius (which,as Coleridgesays,was one of themostmarked n Englishpoetry) was scarcely at all imitative. The ballad firstsuggested to the philosopherthat he should conveyhi8teachingby means of narrative. Afterwards t suggestedsomething lse farmore mportant;namely,thathe shouldadopt a simple style,close to theusage of commonpeoplein real life. In any case, when Wordsworthwrote, b-jectively,he would have written f thepeasantswho livedaround him,but Percy's Reliques caused him to write na more direct and intimateway than Crabbe had done.Yet thoughthestyleof We are Seven is simple, t is not

8The Popular Ballad, .p. 91.9Prose Works, i, p. 52. 10dem, I, p. 51." Prose Works, , pp. 49, 50.



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BAL 303with a ballad simplicity,but in a mannerakin to Blake,whose everyphrasemustbe pondered,even dreamtover,beforewe realize its full significance. As we read theLyrical Ballads we get not so much the incidentthat isrelated,as the personalityof the poet; we see thingsnotas theyare, but as theyseemedto Wordsworth.It was fortunate hatsuch a profoundpoet shouLld aveearlyformed styleso lucid, but in otherways thechoiceof modelswas not advantageous. Wordsworth videntlythought 2 he was writingas primitivemen had written,and justifiedhis deviationfromthe prevalentfashionbydeclaring 3 that" poemsare extant,writtenupon humblesubjects, nd in a morenaked and simplestylethan haveaimed at,whichhave continued o givepleasurefromgen-erationto generation." The foregoing bviouslyrefers oballads. Wordsworthwrote of humble people as hethought heymighthave writtenof themselves, e strovetobe a voiceto those

men endowed with highest gifts,The vision and the facultydivine,Yet wanting the accomplishmentof verse.14Whetheror nothe succeededin this,he gave English lit-eraturesome of its noblestpoetry n the attempt, houghhis mostsuccessfulnarrativeformwas notthe stanza butblankverseor octosyllabic ouLplets.The reasonwhythenarrativestyleof theLyrical Bal-lads seemsto us oftenso flat,evennow thatwe knowitselementsof greatness, s easy to explain. The old balladswhich the critics,fromSir Philip Sidney to ProfessorChild, have taught us to admire are elementallytragic

Prose Works, , p. 77. "3 dem, i, p. 66."4The Exccursion'.Book i, iL. 78-80.



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304 CHARLES WHARTON STORKand compelling; the ballads Wordsworthpreferredweretame and dilute Eighteenth-Century ersions. He culti-vated the spiritnot of "the grand old ballad of Sir Pat-rick Spence," but of The Babes in theWood;15 and wemay suppose he enjoyed less the stirring ales of Percyand Douglas, than16 the" truesimplicity nd genuinepa-thos of Sir Cauline,principally (as he knew) the pro-duct of the " Augustan" Thomas Percy. WithouLteny-ing a certainmerittoWordsworth's avorites,we need notbe surprisedto find nsipidities in the poemswhich theyinspired. These faults are prominent romthe fact thata simple stylemore than any otherdemands an unuisualinspiration n itsmatter oraise it abovethecommonplace,and Wordsworth ould never see when his subject fellfromthe significant o the trivial. The " gross and vio-lent stimulants of the old ballad narrativegave vitalitytomanya weak phraseand line; withthemodernpoettheiniterest f each passage startedfroma dead level and,beinghelpedby no poeticconvention f any sort,depend-ed solelyon the ntrinsic owerof thegivenpoetic mpulse.Few writershave dared to depend upon pure poetry(re-inforced, owever,by deep moralpurpose) so entirelyas did Wordsworth,who discarded story nterestand allthe adventitioushelps of imageryassociatedwith poeticstimuli. The resultwas thathe earnedall he won. It isof course true, as Coleridge says,'7 that in the LyricalBallads there is a certain " inconstancyof style"' (weshould call it a lack of integrityn tone) which intrudesbecause thepoetwill not choosesuitable subjects,or,hav-ingchosen,18will notraise theweakerportions othe evel

UProse Works, , p. 71. 1Prose Works,Ti,p. 243.1TBiographia Literaria, chap. xxII.Hsdem, chap. xiv.



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BALLAD 305ofthebestbytheuseofpoetical onventionsfanysort.But in the LyricalBallads Wordsworthas establishedthehabitofabsoluteincerity hichhas madehisgreatestpassages ndpoems modelofwhatBagehot ustlycalls"the purestyle in poetry. How largea sharethebal-lad had in forminghishabit very eadermustudgeforhimself. The influence f Milton,while it tendedtoobviate aldness fstyle,was at the ame ime re-inforce-ment to Wordsworth's ativesincerity. Perhaps evenPope,withwhomhe rather nexpectedlysserts hat heis familiar,'9mayhavehelpedWordsworthoclarityndmemorableines. But theballad nfluences always obereckoned ith,particularlyn someof thegreatestaterpoems.Having considered hegeneral nfluencef theballadon Wordsworth'soetry nd theory f poetry,we shallniowakeup the pecificetails f hispractice.There rethreedistinctypes f influenceo be noted:first,mita-tionsof theEighteenth-Centuryomestic allad,usuallybuiltaroundtriflingncidents f thepoet's ownexperi-ence; secondly, allads proper, mpersonal oemswithgenuine torynterest suallytakenfrom radition; ndthirdly, oemsfounded n old ballad ideas but givenatotally ewsignificance.In thefirst lass thesubjects re all modernnd real-istic. We think t onceofLucyGray, eterBell,Ruth,The diotBoy,etc., tc. This s the lasswhichllustratesWordsworth'semarkhat he ituations ere nly sedtobringout the characters.Poetryof this class is veryuneven, ecause hesimplifiedtyle eaveseachtheme ostandorfallon itsmerits. In PeterBell a greatdeal ofincidents used rather nconvincinglyo accountfora

"ILetters, II, p. 122.



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306 CHARLES WHARTON STOREchange fheartn thehero. In Buththe tory rings utthe chastened eautyof a soul ennobledby suffering.Thesetwomay tand s types fthepoet's ailure nd suc-cess; as to theothers,etevery eader orm isownopin-ion,remembering,owever,hata trivial ubjectmaybedevelopednto far fromrivial oem.A difficultyhatbesets s here s todistinguishetweentheballadandthe yric n a given ase. Where hallweclassThe Reverie fPoorSusan,or The Childless ather,or The Fountain? As all thepoems re n a sense yrical,i. e.,thevehicle fpersonal eeling,ndnone trictlybal-lad,we shallgiveup anyformalttemptoclassifyhem.In the LyricalBallads Wordsworthometimes ses sub-jectsremotenplace,butheintroducesnly wowhich reset in the traditional ast. Of these lart-Leap Wellbeginswith truenarrativewing, utshirks heclimax(" I willnot top otellhowfarhefledNorwill mentionbywhatdeathhe died"), runs ntodescriptionnd re-flection,nd endswitha moral. Ellen Irwinbelongs othe econd lassofballad nfluence.Despitethepraisegiven otheLyricalBallads, Words-worth ardly ver eturnedotheirmethod.He mayhavefelt hat heblankverse fTheBrothers ndMichaelwasat ess dangerousndmoredignifiedmedium orthe es-sonshewished o mpart ymeans fthe ifearound im.At all events, isnext ttemptsn theballad areballadsproper,bjective,et nthepastand nstoryufficientntothemselves.To thisclassbelong llen Irwin,The SevenSisters, heHorm fEgremont astle, ndThe ForceofPrayer. All ofthese ulbjectsremedieval ndall areonstockballad themes;that is whytheyare so easy toclassify. Thepointhere o benoted s that, hough ll oftheseare respectableoems,neverdescending o bathos,theyhave contributednd will contributeery ittleto



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BALLAD 307theirauthor's eputation.WhenWordsworthoes witha balladwhat ballad shoulddo,he achieves nlymedio-crity. Betterare his earliernondescript fforts, iththeirglaring aults nd their haracteristicirtues.Thethird lass s themostnterestingfall,unitingsit does the attractionfthe old ballad with omeofthefinest oetryn all ofWordsw'orth.o thiswemayper-haps relegate wopoemsfrom heTourin Scotland,RobRoy's Grave nd The SolitaryReaper. The herooftheformerppears na dramaticmonologue hich nticipatcsthemanner fBrowning;t breathes ealthy umorndafine pen-airpirit f iberty. n The SolitaryReaperwehave a picture s immortals any by Millet. So, Words-worth elieved, he woprincipalhemes f theballadwerehandeddown;the" old,unhappy,ar-offhings and the" familiarmatterf to-day." It was the atter ypewhichthepoethad cultivated irst;he was later to reflect hespiritof " battles ong ago."If there re any twopoems fWordsworthore trik-inglynoblethanthe rest, re theynot theSong at theFeast of Brougharr astle and The WhiteDoe of Ryl-stone? If we answeryes, the reasonwill be because nthese wopoemsonly s Wordsworth'shilosophyf lifebroughtntorelief ycontrast ith tsopposite. In LordClifford e haveopposed lorious ction ndhumble utsoul-sufficingatience, nd it is becausethe impulse oaction s so splendidlyonnotednthe ines

Armor rusting in his hallsOn the blood of Clifford allsthat hevictoryf forbearances somemorable.In the White Doe the case is similar,although hemotivesre lessdramaticallyontrasted.This poemem-bodiesperhaps he deepest xpressionsf Wordsworth's



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308 -CHARLES WHARTON STOR:Ibeliefntherefiningower fsuffering,speciallywhentis endured mid" nature's ld felicities."0 The mysticsymbolismf thedoe is a neweffect,lightlynticipated,perhaps, ysuch yrics s The Cuckoo ndbythefishnBrougham astle. It was evidentlyWordsworth'sope2'that he tory,aken odily rom heballadTheRising ntheNorth,might erveto present is convictionsmoreclearly nd forciblyhanthey ould otherwisee stated,and althoughHazlitt 2 thought he narrativepart a" drag," hemajorityfcritics ave ustained he uthor'schoice. Thenarratives very piritedn itself nd,as inthecase ofBrougham astle,thevirtues f actionbringout mostclearlythe highervirtuesof endurance. Itwouldbe out ofplacetopraisefurther;wemayonlyre-mark hat n The WhiteDoe Wordsworth akeshisbestuse,both n style nd in substance,fthepopularballad.Aswe notedntreatingheLyricalBallads,an accurateclassification f ballad influence pon Wordsworthsimpossible;,ut at least a fewrandom asesof thefirstandthird ypes hould erebementioned.AfterheLyri-calBallads there reonly wo mportanttanzaic arrativepoemsdealingwiththepresent, iz., Fidelity and TheHighlandBoy; a factshowing owfarthepoethad re-cededfrom isearlier ractice.Bothofthesepoems on-tainbeauties ar morenoteworthyhanany n theobjec-tivemedievalballads. A little-knowniece,which s,however,emarkablerom urpoint fview, s GeorgendSarah Green, erhaps heonlypoemcomposeds a bal-ladistwouldhavecomposedt. These ineswerenotthe

20 From the sonnet,TheTrosachs.21Letters, I, p. 343.22Letters, x, p. 62. Coleridge also says in generalising, " Words-worth should never have abandoned the contemplative position"(Table Talk, July 21, 1832).



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BALLAD 309result of " emotionrecollected n tranquillity"; forWordsworthellsus 23 he" effusedhem" under hedirectemotionaused by theevent. Theygive that mpressionto thereader; the reflectionsttached re scarcelymorecomplicatedhan hose f a villagermight ave been, ndthe wholehas the ballad qualityofbeingmore ffectingthan he umof ts parts-as if thepoethad composed oofast o put n all he felt. Similar, ut more xtended ndless poignant, s Wordsworth'sast narrative ffort,he,Westmorelandirl.For the hird lass of influence,ldballad motives ithmodern reatment, e may perhapsclaim the Yarrowseries,withtheirhaunting enseof ancientwrong ndsorrownthebackgroundfthe cene. Ontheother and,Wordsworth'sarly nd verynterestinglay The Border-ers, disappointshe promise f its title by givingus nohint of traditionalmatter ave a passing llusionto thefairies. The classicLaodamia s out of ourprovince; oare themedieval omances,heEgyptianMaid and Arte-gal and Elidure, both n themanner f Spenser. Thefainttracesnoticeable n blank-verseoems uch as,TheBrothersmay lso be passedby.

Nearlyall theballadsof thefirstcontemporary)lass(Part One ofHart-LeapTWellelongs o thesecond)aretoldeither ythepoetor bysomeunnecessaryhirdper-son, s opposed othepopularusageofnever ringingnthepronoun I." Again,Wordsworth'srimarynterestin character ivesus individual iguresnstead fballadtypes,peoplewho merelydo things. In his objectivemedieval alladshe has less chancefor ntimatenalysis,a principal easonwhy hese oems renugatory. n themore ubjective oems four third lass we have forthe

'-Letters,m, p. 465.3



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310 CHARLES WHARTON STORKfirst ime charactercontrast, hat featureessential to alldramatic effects. Lord Cliffordn Brougham Castle hastwo natures,the active spirit of the ballad hero and thepassive fortitude eveloped n himby

The silence that is in the starry sky,The sleep that is among the lonely hills.In The White Doe Emily and Francis. are representedminutely, he othersalmostwithballad brevity, ut withthemoreeffect n contrast orthatvery reason.Wordsworth eganwith theregularfour-line tanza,butsoon branchedout into variants; e. g., an eight-line taveriminga b a b c d c d, in which the " a's" have always adouble ending. Then there are many original combina-tionsof coupletsand alternaterimes,such as those n theten-line tanza of Her Eyes are Wild and the eleven-linestanza of The Thorn. It would be out of proportion ereto enumerate thers;sufficet to say thattheyare all builtupon the two original ballad norms of the rimed coupletand the four-line tanza with alternaterimes. The poetseems to have been experimentingo find a slightlymorecomplex arrangement hat would make his lines appearsomewhat ess bare, in facthe tellsus 24 that he thinks hestanza used in GoodyBlake an improvement n thestereo-typed method. In Ellen Irwin he imitates Burger'sLenore. The foot s nearlyalwaystheiambus,notableex-ceptions eingTheReverie fPoorSusan andTheChild-less Father, in anapests. In lyric flexibilityThe WhiteDoe is reminiscent, otalwayshappily,of Christabel.The three most marked qualities of popular balladstyle25-the refrain,repetitionof conventional ines and

24Prose Works, I, p. 69.25 Cf. Professor G. L. Kittredge's Introduction to the Cambridgeedition ofEnglish and Scottish Popular Ballads and his references oProfessorGummere'sworks.



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INFLUENCE OF TIRE POPULAR BALLAD 311phrases,and "c ncremental epetition-are conspicu-ouslyrare,diminishingrom moderatemportancenWeAreSeventonegligibilitynalmost ll poems fter heLyriical allads. We haverefrainsnTheThorn ndTheSeven Sisters, hat of the latter, the solitudeof Ben-norie," uggestingfcourse heballad ofTheTwoSisters.The IdiotBoy aboundsn repeated hrases, ut as a ruleWordsworthollowedhe modernmethod fthinkingutsynonymsndfindingriginaldjectives. Ofincrementalrepetitionsed fordramatic uspense nd climax, s inBabylon, dward, ndmanymore fthebestpopular al-lads,theresnotoneexample. There s noconsciousllit-erationnWordsworth. is forced se ofinversion,or-rowed rom he mitationallads,decreasesteadily.As tothe anguage ftheLyricalBallads notbeing helanguage freal ife,Coleridge0is ofcourse ight. In abroad enseWordswortheverwrote fanybodyuthim-self; he givesus 27 notpeopleas they re butpeopleasthey ppeartohim. We cannot, herefore,xpecthimtomakethem alkas they eallywouldtalk. His creationshave a very trong nddefinitectuality,ut t is largelyan actualityent hem y their reator.As a penetratingcritichas said in another onnection,actplus imagina-tiongives nother act-the final actbeing, s Coleridgenotes,28muchmore nterestingnd universal hantheoriginal. Had Wordsworthrittens he proposed, ispoemswouldhavebeena littlebetter nd a greatdealworse. It was in imitation f the Eighteenth-Centuryballad style,whichWordsworthupposedwas an adapta-

26 iog.Lit.,chaps.xvn,xx.'7Cf.p. 301, upra, ndnote.Wordsworthxpresslyaysthatsomeofhisfigures ere ompositesDowden, tudies nLiterature, . 145andnote).'sBiog.Lit, chap.xvii.



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312 CHARLES WHARTON STORKtion fthe peech freal ife, hatLucyGraywasmadetoanswer, That,father, ill gladlydo,"surely cardinalspecimenfthenamby-pamby;t wasfromhepoet's wnheart hat he ines ame-

No mate, no comradeLucy knew;She dwelton a widemoor,-The sweetest hingthat evergrewBesidea humandoor.This last s whatwemay all theBlakenote, o much iketheballad-and so muchmore nlike! Ofcourse he woblend ndifferentroportions,hepersonal rivinguttheimitative s timegoes on. But if thestyle ftheballadhad doneno more hanhelpWordswortho find he an-guageof commonense,twouldhaverenderedn infiniteservicen those aysoftheDella Cruscans nd other on-tinuatorsfEighteenth-Centuryrtificiality. he extentofthis nfluence,s already tated, annever e calculatedin thecase of a poet who so entirelyssimilatednd sostrongly odifiedll that ffectedimfrom utside.

The question fballad influencen Coleridges com-parativelyimple, utextremelynterestingone he ess;foralthough utonepoemof importances directlyn-volved, hathappensto be The Rime of the AncientMariner. The ThreeGraves, hefragmentfThe DarkLa,die nd Alice du Clos aretheonly ther allads, houghsuggestionsf thetraditionppearelsewhere.And notonly s thefield fballad nfluencen Coleridge ery im-ited,butthecharacter fthat nfluences almost niform.As noted t thebeginningfthisarticle, t consists f amedieval lamour ndremotenesslmostnvariably end-ing toward he supernatural.Wordsworth ad at firstmadeuse oftheballadprocess omewhats he conceiveda peasantmighthave done; its closeness o commonife



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BALLAD 313and ts directnessfstyle ad mpressedim;hemayhaveliked to thinkhe was keepingthe convention live.Coleridge,n the otherhand,was in his bestpoetry ri-marily stylist,rperhapswe should atherayan artist.AswithDe Quincey ndPoe (both fwhom,ikehimself,werea preyto stimulants) is soulwas enamouredf abeauty xquisitelytrange nd terrible, beautynotoftime or place,butdwellingn theutmost egions f theimagination.Now to thegenerationf Coleridge andlargely o thosefollowing) he strange nd the terribleseemed obelong fright otheMiddleAges. De Quin-cey' AvengerndPoe's Fall of theHouse of Usher howhowthesekindred eniuses ought kindred tmosphere.It was almostnevitablehatColeridgehouldhaveantici-patedthem, nd thathe shouldhaveusedtheballad,asChattertonid, onlybecause n manyways it connotedthemedieval.Coleridge'sheoryndpractice fpoetrywere nstinc-tively hose fartfor rt'ssake. Despitehis admirationforWordsworth'strongernd sounder enius, vende-spitehispreference9 ofhisfriend's oetry ohisown,hecouldnothavewrittenther hanhe did. Consequently,polemical riticsmustrange hemselvesnder hebannerofArnold rofSwinburnenthedispute s tothepriorityofthe wopoets. With hisdisputewehaveherenothingtodo. It is,however,mportantonoticeColeridge'sm-phasisonstyle. He maintains0that poetryustifies spoetry ewcombinationsf language, nd commandsheomission fmanyothers llowablen other ompositions.Wordsworthasnot ufficientlydmittedheformernhissystem nd has in his practicetoo frequentlyinned

29Traill's Life of Coleridge (English Men of Letters Series), p. 41.' Letters, pp. 374-5.



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314 CHEARLES WHARTON STORKagainst he atter." Again,3' Everyphrase, verymeta-phor,everypersonificationhould have its justifyingclause n somepassion ofthepoetorhischaracters.HefindsWordsworth'sPreface 32 " verygrand, . . . but inparts bscurend harshnstyle." Coleridge asevidentlya manwho ustifiediterature,specially oetry, rettylargely y its style. We neednot, hen, e surprised ofind hat heballadforhimwasnot a method ftreatingactual ife as it appeared ohim, utrather n assortmentof poeticdevicesby whichto give the effects e wasplanning.But theballad didfarmore orColeridgehanfurnishhimwith fewpigmentsywhich o obtainwhatwe maycall delocalizedocalcolor, coloring hichmakes ealtous thecountryfhis imagination. t is notbya coinci-dence thathisgreatest inishedoem, heonepoem uni-versally nown nd universallyraised,happens o be aballad. Coleridge'sweaknesseswere lack of substance,lackofpurpose,ndlack ofvirility. Thepopularballadexists nlybyright fsubstance,ecause hecomposerasa story o tell; itspurposes clearand inevitable,o tellthestory nd be done with t; and its form-in stanza,line, ndphrase-is terse ndvigorous.Here,then,s thereasonwhy, s Mr. Traillhas observed,33The AncientMariner boundsn qualities n whichColeridge's oetryis commonly eficient";whyhere alonewe have "'anextraordinary4 vividness f imagerynd tersevigorofdescriptivehrase ; whywefind 5" brevitynd self-re-straint hereand not in any otherpoemby the sameauthor. It wassurely heballadconventionhatkept he

31Idem, . 374.'2Idem,p. 387.ss Life of Coleridge,p. 47.

" Idemn,. 51.5 Idem, p. 53.



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INFLUENCE OF TIRE POPULAR BALLAD 315poemgoing,and it was possiblytheballad tenacity fpur-pose that caused it to be finished; the incompleteDarkLadie throws ome doubt on the atterpoint.As to the causes of Coleridge's failure with his otherpoems,muchhas been said that need nothere be rehearsed.He himself asserted36that the alleged obscurityof hispoetry came from the uncommonnature of his thought,notfrom nydefect n expression. He said 37 thatpoetrynearlyalwaysconsistsofthought nd feelingblended,andthatwith him philosophical opinionscame in to such anextent as to forma peculiar stylethat was sometimesfault and sometimes virtue. But on thispointColeridge,the subtle specialistin criticism, ontradictshimself; forin anotherplace 38 he declaresthat AMilton's efinition fpoetry s " simple, sensuous,and passionate" sums up. thewhole matter. The second statement s of course thesounderview. Doubtless Coleridge hoped to writeof ab-strusesubjects in a style thatwould not be abstruse,butit was impossible o get any simple, ensuous, orpassionateresults out of such an involvedmode of thought as his.One has only to look at his prose,with its continual dis-criminations, ualifications, nd parentheses, o see whatso oftenhindered him from being a poet. On the otherhand,Wordsworth's hilosophical deas, thoughdeep,weresimple; and his conviction s to their truthwas so strongas tobecome a passion, as witnessparticularly he Ode onIntimationsf mmortality.Whywas it,we may ask, that in The AncientMarinerColeridgeforgothis involutions nd assumed the virtueshe so seldomhad ?-h'ow could he for this once adopt themethods of the ballad? The answer is to be found in a

"Letters, pp. 194-5.3TIdcm,p. 197. 8 Idem, p. 387.



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316 CHARLES WHARTON STORKcertain mysticismwhich the modern man feels in thefinest assages of theold ballads, a mysticism ar simplerthan that of Coleridge, but sufficientlyermeatingtoappeal strongly o his sympathies. This effects hardlyto be described,hardly even to be illustrated-one criticwill find it where anotherwill deny that it exists-buteverytrue lover of theballad will have felt it again andagain in favoritepassages. Perhaps as safe a selection asany is the stanza of Sir Patrick Spence which Coleridgehimselfprefixed o his Dejection:

Late, late yestreen saw the new Moon,With the old Moon in her arms;And I fear, I fear,myMaster dear!We shall have a deadly storm.'mAnyone who has tried to teachtheballad knowshowdiffi-cult it is tobringthe atentbeautyofsuchpassagesbeforean averagemind; but once thebeautyis perceived, t hasa strangely ervasiveand enduringpower. This Coleridgefeltas no otherman has ever felt t. Launching into thestorywith typical ballad abruptness,he yielded himselftothenarrative urrent nd was borneby it safelythroughthe labyrinthinereefs of metaphysics ndicated by hisown notes in themargin. Though The AncientMarineris true Coleridge, it is in this case a Coleridge that hasgivenup his ownintricate nd nebulousmysticism or themoredirectand concretemysticism f the ballad.C'omingto the considerationof Coleridge's ballads indetail,we find the first f these to be The Three Graves.The first woparts of thispoem seem40 certainly o ante-date The Ancient Mariner. In the firstplace the poet

" The correctform of this line is: " That we will come to harm."Coleridgemust have mixed stanzas 7 and 8 ofPercy's version.I Quoted in Mr. J. D. Campbell's notes, Globe ed., p. 590.



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BALLAD 317asserts 1 that the storywas taken fromfacts, n the sec-ond the style very stronglysuggestsWordsworth, spe-cially in its imitationof faults whichColeridge ater con-demns. As in Wordsworth,hetale is put intothemouthof an unnecessarythirdperson,and such a prosaic indi-rectness s thefollowingndicatesa most nartisticresem-blanceto itsmodels:

She started up-the servantmaidDid see her when she rose;And she has oft declared to meThe blood within her froze.

But the story tselfwas one thatwould have been abhor-renttoWordsworth; he idea of a mother'sguilty ove forthe affianced usbandof herdaughterwouldhave repelledhim at once. Coleridge professes2 to have chosen thesubject not from" any partialityto tragic,much less tomonstrous vents,"but for ts imaginativeand psychologi-cal interest. This defense,by the way, is exactly thatwhicha moderndecadentmightuse on a similaroccasion.The treatment, oo, is distinctlymmoral,or, as somecriticsnow preferto call it, unmoral. That an innocentpair shouldsuffer romthe curse of theguiltymother s,at least to an average person, repugnant. Coleridge'spenchanttowardthesupernaturalappears in his dwellingon thispointand evengoingso far as to imaginethat

the mother'ssoul to HellBy howling fiendswas borne,-an unsatisfactory it of poetic justice, as her curse livesafterher. But there s power n thepoem,a powerof ustthe sort that anticipates the success of later pieces.Throughout hestanzaswe feel theuncannygenius of the

41 Ibid., p. 590. 4' Ibid., p. 590, 589.



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318 CmARIuES WnARTON STORKpoet trugglingn a trammelinglement,ften ising eadand shouldersbove t. The ThreeGraves s far frombeing goodpoem,butfragmentarynd inchoate houghit is, we can hardlyunderstand he AncientMarinerwithoutt.Thisbrings s to thecenter foursubject. After heexperimentf The ThreeGravesColeridge electedustthe theme hat suitedhim,and in the treatmentepttolerablylearof thehamperingnfluencefhiscolleague.To be sure,Wordsworthupplied he dea43 that hesuf-fering ftheMariner houldbe representeds an atone-ment forthe death of the albatross, nd no doubttheconcluding oral He prayethest wascomposednderhis influence; utthesecan easily be detached rom hebodyof thepoem. We are all familiarwiththeagree-Iment44n regard otheLyricalBallads bywhichWords-worthwas to bringout thesupernaturalide of naturalscenes and Coleridgewas to bringout the natural, hehumanly omprehensible,ide of his supernaturalhan-tasies. It was only in The Ancient Mariner thatColeridgedefinitelyarriedout his shareof theunder-taking.

The AncientMariner, owever, asnotwritteno llus-trate theory r even to carryout a conscious urpose.Few phrases ouldbetter umup the effect f thepoemthan that of an inspiredundergraduate ho calledColeridge a literary urner." There s in these wothesameglorifyingrilliance f color, hesametriumphfbeauty vermere ubject, he amemarvellousift fstylewvhichaises their espectivertsalmost o theemotionallevelofmusic. Even thehuman oulliving hroughhe

I Quoted n Mr. Campbell'snotes,Globeed.,p. 594." Biog.Lit.,beginning fchap.xiv.



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BALLAD 319scenes of the poem, which Lamb thoughtthe greatestachievement f all, is rendered n a lightofunreality;fortheMariner's mostpassionateoutcry wakensno real painin us. Why,then, f theyare so vague, do thispoemand(say) Turner's Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus exercisesuch a powerful and enduring nfluence verus? In thecase of Turner we knowthat it is largelyfromthe firmcommandof draughtsmanshipwhi,h he allows us to seemore clearly in his water-colors. In Coleridge a similarfirmness omes fromthe groundwork f the ballad, themost marked and dominating of all the conventionalforms n poetic narrative. The concisenessof the balladand its insistent rogression emanda relationofthepartsto thewholenot unlike that requiredby the laws of per-spective. (This, like mostanalogies,may be carriedtoofar,but in generalit seemsto be notinaccurate.)Taking his plot froma dream,45Coleridge began hislongflight nhamperedby theweightof actuality; courseand destination ndefinite, s it were. ThoughtheMari-rer tells thetale, theeffectn thereaderis almostthatofan impersonalnarrative. The speaker tells nothingofWThoe is and little of what he does, he is as a helplesssoul passing throughstrangeexperiences. Consequentlywe feel the eventsof the poem very immediately;we donot watch the hero as we watch Lord Clifford r EmilyNorton, we live his adventurewith our inmost being.It would seemfromthis thatThe WhiteDoe is nearertotheold ballad than is The AncientMariner,but in realitywe feel thattheNortonsare always illustrating philoso-phical idea, whereas the Mariner neither reasons norcauses us toreason. The explanationsofhis voyageare asmystically impleas are thoseaboutdeathin The Wife of

'4 Quoted in Mr. Campbell's notes, Globe ed., p. 594.



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320 CHEARLES WHARTON STORKUsher's Well or about fairylandin Thomas Rymer; themodernpoet exerciseshardlymorearbitrary ontrol handoes the nameless bard. In both cases we feel intenselybut abstractly. We notice thatColeridge s often emptedto digress, but the ballad inspirationdriveshim on, justas it drovethe authorof Sir Patrick Spence.The story xistsfor ts ownsake as a work of art; essen-tially it conveys,or should convey,no moral. Its oneweaknessin form s its promiseof a moral suggested, swe have seen, by Wordsworth. For the shootingof thealbatross s an absurdlysmall offense o bringabout sucha punishment, nd the attemptto make the othersailorsresponsibleby having them approve the deed is evenworse; besides, the accomplicesare punishedwith death,whereas the principal expiates his sin. Fortunately wefeel thesedefectsbut slightly, orwe mustrelinquishourjudicial qualities tofollowthemagical flow f the ines.We have been somewhat ver-accentinghe resemblanceof The AncientMarinertotheballad; thedifferences ustnot be forgotten. As a poet of the highest maginativepower and the most exquisite technic,Coleridge raiseseverystanza, everyphrase,to a miracle of design. Theveryabsence of apparenteffortn theprocess s the finalproofofhis perfect rt. Whatwe find n a happystanzahere and there among the old ballads is a regular rulewith the modern poet. His similes are nearly alwaysbriefand his metaphorsdirect,but the best of ballads isdull and uninspired in comparison. His greater sub-tlety and sensitivenessmake the old formsseem roughand childish; his control f sound and color s like a sixthsense. And yetthebalance is notall on one side. If theballad has no real description,Coleridgehas no real nar-ration. What we have called a story s but a successionof descriptionsphotographed n the receptivesoul of the



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BALLAD 321Mariner. No one does anything,east of all thehero.Tried in the heat ofnormalhnman nterestthetestoftheballad), the storymelts wayto nothing,ts appealcan be onlyto the few. To thepeasantfor whomTheHunting f theCheviotwas written,hewholewouldhaveseernedhe" taleof a cockand a bull" that he arlyre-viewers ound t. Theimagerynd verbalmusic fColer-idgeareopposed o thecompacttatementndstrong eatof the balladnotwholly o the advantage f theformer.After ll, theres a differenceetween eal and acquiredsimplicity.The unfinishedallad oftheDarkLadie is closely on-nected46withthemore yricalpoem,Love. The latterpiece,Coleridge ellsus,was intended obe an introduc-tionto theBallad. But the ncidentaltory old nLoveis apparentlyotthatofThe Dark Ladie. In Love theknightwearson his shielda burning rand,whereas heDark Ladie sendsher page to find"the Knight thatwears / The Griffinorhis crest." We have littleclueas towhatthe tale of theBallad is to be, but this ittleseems o indicate nothermotive hanthatusedin Love.WhenLordFalklandspeaks o his ladyof stealing wayto his castle "Beneath the twinklingtars" and sheshrinks rom he dea ofdarknessndwishes o be mar-ried at noon,we havea forebodingftheLenoretheme,thedead loverreturned o claim a livingbride. Thereis a feel of theG-ermanallad of terrorboutthepoemnoticeable n the rathergushing entimentnd in theeffort o arouse a shudder. Fartherthanthis the evi-dencewill nottakeus. In Alice du Clos,however, ehave a distinctly ermanballad with severalpassagesreminiscentf Scott. The themes violent nd painful,

I Quoted nMr.Campbell's otesto theGlobe d.,p. 612-3.



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322 CEUALES WHARTON STORKthenarrativetyleabored, hediction verwrought. hefragile trengthfColeridges sadly trained nhandlingsuchmaterial; rude cts, hestapleof theballad,belongto a world utsidehisknowledge.Neverthelesshepoemhasbeautiful escriptiveinesand onestirringassage nScott'sbetter tyle:

Scowl not at me; commandmy killTo lureyourhawkback, fyouwill,But not a woman's eart.Alicedu Clos is at least a better xcursionntotheterri-tory ftherough ndready chool fpoetry han s Scott'sballad ofGlenfinlasntotherealmofthe fantastic.Passing on to consider allad influencen the poemswhich re notballads,webeginnaturally ithChristabel.If ever tylewithoutubstanceouldmake perfectoem,it wouldbe in the case ofthisunrivalled ieceoffiligreework. To Swinburnet seemed heacme ofpoeticart;but few even of the truest rt-loversan be satisfied ymelodywithoutequence, nd colorwithouthape. Thepoem, f onemust definet, is a sortof lyricromance-caprice, n which the lightsare alwayschanging ikethoseofmoonlightn a waterfall. But there re ballad

elementsn themisty tmospheref Christabel. Terseand directphrasing ften ends the same vividness osupernaturalffectshat we havenoted n The AncientMariner ndSir PatrickSpence. For instance,AndChristabel aw that ady'seye,Andnothinglse sawshethereby.QuothChristabel, o let it be!Andas the adybade, did she.Hergentle imbsdid sheundress,And lay down in her loveliness.

But the teady low ftheballadnarrativend thesteadypulseof theballad stanza are not there o givepurpose



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INFLUENCE OF THE POPULAR BALLAD 323andconsistencyothewhole. Perhaps t was becausehehad no traditionalmodelto sustainhim thatColeridgeconfessed7 he had "scarce poeticalenthusiasmnoughto finish hristabel." This at least we know:thestoryin Christabelorgetstselfn longdescriptions,oses tselfin digressions,hanges epeatedly,ndnever nds.KublaKhan in small orrespondsoChristabeln large,except hat nitthe lementfmysterys orientalnsteadofmedieval;a fact which eminds s thatat thisperiodthe oriental ovelwas rivaling he" Gothic in talesofterror. The onlypointof interest orus in the shorterpoem is the "woman wailingforher demon over,"afiguremore ndigenouso themedievalballad 8 than totheArabiantale. Dejection n the ine " The grandoldballadofSir PatrickSpence givesus theonlyspecificmentionf a ballad or of theballadwhichhas thusfarappeared n Coleridge's ublishedwritings.His quota-tionfrom ir Patrick t thebeginningfsucha personalpoemshowshowsensitive e was to theuncanny eel ofballad lineseven whentheymnerelyisplayed popularbelief s to theweather. The Knight'sTombalsohas aballad touch. Love has beensufficientlyreatedn con-nectionwithTheDark Ladie. The WaterBallad is toofeeble odeservehesecond artof ts title. TheDevil'sWalk s an excellent umorous allad.It remains nlyto examine hedetailsofballad influ-enceonColeridge. The ThreeGraves s in form n imi-tationofWordsworth'sarlystylewithbut a suggestionof independence. n Parts One and Two thefour-linestanza s unvaried,nPartsThree ndFouroccur everalof thefive nd six-line tanzascommonn The Ancient

"7Letters,p. 317.'8 Cf. the ballad James Harris or The Demon Lover, Cambridge ed.ofBallads.



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324 CHALES WHARTON STORKMariner. As the torys modern, o medievalismanbebroughtn.The original orm f thetitle,whichwas The Rimeofthe AncyentMarinere, hows at once what effect heauthor ntendedo create, ut aterColeridge overed istracks. In the first ersion f the text tworepetitionsand the words phere," n'old and " aventure' wereexcised, robablyo diminish he appearance f borrow-ingfromheballad; theword swound wasalsochanged,but later restored. The spellingwas moderniseds inthe title; the caseswerenotnumerous, cauld,"" Emer-auld," " chuse and " neres beingexamples.49Coler-idge's tastewas well-nigh erfect n thispoint,for thevocabulary f thepoemconveys he idea of remotenessand neverof affectation.n contrast,he unfortunatephrase bootless ene in The Forceof Prayer s almosttheonly rchaismnWordsworth.Ballad repetition,imilarly, houghmuchmorefre-quent han nWordsworth,s used withgreatdiscrimina-tion. Theechoing f a singlewordgives greater hysi-cal reality othe dea in

The ice was here, the ice was thereThe ice was all around;

as in " Alone, alone,all, all alone and " Water,watereverywhere."Phrasesare repeated nd parallelism re-servedwith hesameeffect,. e., the reader's ttentionskepton thesensuous bjectand notdiverted o the styleby any unnecessaryhange of the wording. The phe-nomena fsunrise nd sunset remadeparticularlynti-mateby thismeans ndby theaddedtouch fpersonifica-49 One of Professor Archibald MacMechan's students has discoveredthat all Coleridge's borrowings came fromthe firstvolume of Percy.



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INFLUENCE OF THE ROPULAR BiALL 325tion. Incremental epetitions not carriedbeyond heprogressionHe holds him with his glittering eye.followed t the opening f thenext tanzaby

iIe holds him with his glitteringeye.There s no refrainnywheren Coleridge. Alliteration,ruggedn theballad, s toneddown o as not to jar thedelicate verbalmusic of the whole. " The furrow ol-lowedfree subtly elieves he nsistence f the" f"s bytheplay ofC" "s and "1." There s strong owel llit-eration 0 n "Alone,alone, ll, all alone,"but thechangeofshadingndthefact hat he glottal atch is sofainta sound erve gaintoshowhowperfects thepoet's ar.Inversion,which s often o awkwardn Wordsworth,shandledwiththe same care thatappears n the otherdetailsof The AncientMariner.ThatColeridgewasworkingoward more urely yri-cal metrewe see by his variants f the regularballadstanza. Internalrime s frequent. The five-linetanzaa bc c b is used sixteen imes, o thatthefollowing ormis nearly ypical:

With throats unslaked, with black lips bakedWe could nor laugh nor wail;Through utter droughtall dumb we stood!I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,And cried,A sail, a sail!Coleridge lso cultivatedhesix-line tanza occasionallyfound n the old ballad), often epeatingwith a slightvariationn lines5 and 6 thethought f lines 3 and 4,as in

?Cf. thepaperreadby Professor . N. Scottbefore he ModernLanguageAssociation, ec. 30th,1913.4



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The Influence of the Pop Ballad

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