Luh Dee-zhest-leet I see literature, and all other art, as a digestif. We look to it to help digest the human experience.
I am an English graduate and an aspiring novelist. So, my fascination with literature is not so surprising. I am an arts enthusiast in general.
Here, you can find my creative writing and read reviews of performances I have watched. (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-63852117-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview');
in‘Mademoiselle Privé, a journey through the origins of CHANEL's creations capturing the charismatic personality and irreverent spirit of Mademoiselle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld.- Saatchi Gallery website
That it was. This immersive exhibition closed in the end of November, but there were queues everyday so I’m glad that so many people got the chance to see this wonderful exhibition.
The exhibition was definitely not what I expected..it was better than I expected. I loved how multi-sensory it was. I learnt about Chanel’s inspiration and innovation through different forms: video, voice-overs, photographs, drawings and music.
Being born in the 1990s, I’ve always known Chanel to be one of the world’s most luxurious and ground-breaking fashion houses. However, seeing the origins of Chanel and how Coco Chanel herself pioneered change in fashion and style allowed me to fully appreciate how influential she and her fashion house is. From designing hats of practical shape and size to reinventing the diamond for an iconic jewellery collection inspired by the stars, she left no part of style or fashion untouched.
I even got to see the gardens that inspired the Chanel logo. Take a peek below to see, too:
One of the best parts of the exhibition was seeing modern pieces by Chanel. Seeing Coco’s aesthetic live on and continue to inspire contemporary designers and women who want to look beautiful.
Well, his portraits are in London. If you have the chance to go to The National Gallery between now and January, I highly recommend you go. It's free for members and £16-18 for adults (depending on if you donate to the museum or not). There are also concessions for students. I paid and it was money well spent.
Hi. I actually found someone to edit that story but I also have a 100 word flash fiction I want to submit to another magazine that needs editing if you're interested.
HiSure, I'd be happy to. Just email it to me at: [email protected] Which magazine are you submitting to?
I’ve split Odette and Odile to make this decision easier on myself. I’m yet to see a ballerina who hits all the right chords for both characters for me.
Odette: Ulyana Lopatkina
Odile: Maya Plisetskaya
Siegfried: Roberto Bolle
von Rothbart: Edward Watson
Spanish Bride: Natalia Osipova
Click ‘message’ or ‘submit’ and let me know who features in your fantasy cast of Swan Lake or any other ballet, opera or play.
Analysis: Bonaparte Crossing the Great St Bernard Pass by Jacques-Louis David
I’m not a big fan of Napoleon Bonaparte but I love this painting by Jacques-Louis David. In fact, he is one of my favourite artists.
Unsurprisingly, Bonaparte is the centre of attention. His position on top of the horse means he totally dwarfs the soldiers in the background to the point where they are barely noticeable. The colours used to paint the soldiers are very muted. It looks like David is trying to fade them out of the picture - literally!
In direct contrast, Bonaparte is depicted with much bolder and brighter colours. The dichotomy between the faded background and the bolder Bonaparte ensure that your attention is on the latter.
From a quick look at the background, we can see the weather isn't that great: overcast with dark cloud. Yet, luckily for Bonaparte, a ray of sunshine fought its way through the thick cloud and found him.
Still on the weather, note the direction of the wind. Bonaparte has a tail wind. It seems as if the powers of the universe have conspired to aid his mission, implying that his work is serving a natural order and that he has divine approval. He is pointing onwards and upwards; the military campaign he is leading is bringing progress.
If you look closely at the bottom left hand corner, you can see ‘Bonaparte’ inscribed in the rock. Bonaparte’s place in history has literally been set in stone. Next to his name, Hannibal, Karolus and Magnus are inscribed in the rock. David is clearly aligning Bonaparte’s achievements and potential with these three legendary military figures.
I know that it is a painting, therefore, everything is static. However, there is a dynamism to Bonaparte that is lacking everywhere else in the painting. The wind is blowing his clothes around, his horse is rearing and he pointing onwards and upwards.
Keep an eye for five more performance reviews this summer. I will be going to see La Boheme at the Royal Opera House (again) and four concerts at the BBC Proms. I was lucky enough to get a ticket to see Yo-Yo Ma perform Bach’s Cello Suites. Look below to get a run down:
- La Boheme, Royal Opera House
- Prom 14: Prokofiev - The Piano Concertos, Royal Albert Hall
- Prom 15: Prokofiev, Qigang Chen & Rachmaninoff, Royal Albert Hall
- Prom 38: Pierre Boulez, Ravel & Stravinsky, Royal Albert Hall
- Prom 68: Bach - Six Cello Suites, Royal Albert Hall
To what extent do the Lyrical Ballads put into practice the theory of poetry outlined in Wordsworth’s Preface?
Note: This is an essay I wrote for a third year course on Romanticism at the University of Aberdeen. Do not copy and take credit for my work; that is plagiarism.
A review of Coleridge's poetry, by Coleridge himself, brought attention to a professional tension between he and Wordsworth; whilst Coleridge respected Wordsworth he disagreed with 'much of his poetic theory and has not followed it principles'.[1] The incompatibility of Coleridge's poetic style and Wordsworth's poetic theory was bound to have implications for their collaborative masterpiece, in terms of its production and its interpretation. The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is an influential piece of critical theory and pivotal to the Romantic movement because it provides a justification for it. So it is only right to stand the Lyrical Ballads against its preface and test the preface's claims. The focus is on 'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere' which demonstrates the preface's promises to explore human emotion but diverges from the proclamations of the preface that distance the Lyrical Ballads from the Gothic genre.
The Preface describes the collection as an 'experiment',[2] a term which forms an expectation in the reader for the collection not to adhere to tradition. Wordsworth is making it very clear that Lyrical Ballads is intentionally different; that he and Coleridge are self-consciously turning contemporary poetic traditions on their head, so as to avoid poetic incompetency being ascribed to the radicalism. It is mentioned in the second sentence, implying that doing something anew with poetry is paramount. The Preface is a preparatory piece for the reader, setting them up for the reception of something innovative. This would have been a necessary for contemporaries who would have been aware of the negative critical response to the 1798 edition.[3] An explanation of the simplified linguistic style and vernacular, and the democratised subject matter would be needed to allow for a fair critical response to the 1800 edition.
The term 'experiment'[4] is used purposefully, to bridge the worlds of science and art. The Romantic movement overlapped with the Age of Enlightenment and great scientific advancements. Western thought was bowing more and more to the power of rational thought, logic and science, all of which are seemingly incompatible with the emotionally-centred nature of the Lyrical Ballads. In the face of an increasingly rational world, the Lyrical Ballads seemed obsolete. Scientific terminology is being deliberately employed to give the collection a purpose. This purpose is to explore feeling to better understand the mind. Wordsworth synthesises science and art by making the Lyrical Ballads a psychological investigation: 'to follow the fluxes and refluxes of the mind'.[5] His declaration that 'poetry is passion'[6] is not a denial that the Lyrical Ballads are saturated in human emotion and are only concerned by it. He then, in the same sentence, counter-argues the point which critics used against the 1798 edition most. The phrase, 'the history or science of feeling',[7] quashes the notion that the Lyrical Ballads is just an over-indulgence of emotion, and is entirely fanciful. In addition, the phrase implies that the collection is purposeful, practical and ultimately beneficial. It is a tool the reader can use to understand the workings of their own mind and emotions. This is a successful use of juxtaposition which contrasts negative critical responses to the 1798 edition with a defence of it, thus crushing the attack. The Preface also functions as a justification for, or a pre-emptive defence of the 1800 edition. The bridging of the creative and the scientific rationalises what seems to be the irrational. The erratic, unpredictable and unstable emotions and states of mind, which the collection explores, are placed in a scientific and thus a rational context.
The rationality that the reader comes to expect after reading the Preface is not fulfilled by 'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere'. The most striking defiance of Wordsworth's poetic theory is probably the Gothic content of 'The Rime' which disregards 'the principal object [of Lyrical Ballads]' […] to make the incidents of life interesting […] (truly, though not ostentatiously)'.[8] The conventions of the Gothic genre, as defined by Botting[9], are utilised greatly. There is a heavy reliance on the supernatural spirits to drive the plot; the sailors transgress from the living to the dead, and back to the living again. There is fear, the wedding guest fears the Mariner and the sailors rising from the dead are causes of fear. For most of the ballad there is isolation, be it the Mariner with his sailors stuck at sea or the Mariner, who is 'alone, alone, all all alone/Alone […]'[10] after the deaths of the sailors. The descriptions given are generally rather excessive, the water burns green, blue and white,[11] and 'a million million slimy things'[12] crawl upon it. All of these conventions, of which there are many more examples, contribute to an overall effect which is neither true, reflective of everyday life, nor modest. This is not a shortcoming, however, it is a jarring inclusion in a collection which just pages before distanced itself from such kinds of poetry. The Preface dismisses the Gothic genre 'as stupid German tragedies'[13] for its 'application of gross and violent stimulants'.[14] Coleridge proves the worth of this genre which Wordsworth so quickly dismisses by using the Gothic to catalyse a psychological investigation. 'The Rime' gives the Gothic elevated status; promoting it from 'stupid'[15] to useful, on which I will go into further detail later.
The tussle between Wordsworthian poetic theory, which criticises the Gothic, and Coleridgean imagination is undeniable. The confliction between the Gothic content of 'The Rime' and the Preface manifested itself in reality. Gravil attributes this key aesthetic different to the dissolving of their close friendship, what he calls, 'Wordsworth's insensitivity to Coleridge's imagination'.[16] Another slight to Coleridge's imaginative style was Wordsworth's refusal to include 'Christabel' in the publication[17], although Gravil argues that another possible reason for its omission was that is was unfinished.[18] However, the 1800 edition of Lyrical Ballads has an undertone of passive aggression towards 'The Rime'; it is moved to be the penultimate piece. A noticeable change from the 1798 edition in which it is the opening piece; a change which did not escape Coleridge's notice. [19]. Despite the reshuffle, there is still an unwelcome juxtaposition between Coleridge's 'grudgingly reprinted'[20] work and 'Tintern Abbey', which well demonstrates Wordsworth's poetic theory. Wordsworth clearly recognised this artistic difference, however, still included it in the collection – why? Newlyn poses 'financial necessity'[21] as a possible explanation. This explanation can only comprehensively explain its inclusion in the 1798 edition. I argue, 'The Rime' was included in the 1800 edition because although it contradicts the Preface's stance on the Gothic, it demonstrates another string of Wordsworth's poetic theory which outranks the issue of the Gothic content: the significance of human emotion.
The Preface states that the purpose of the Lyrical Ballads to explore feeling to better understand the mind. There is a primary focus, throughout the collection, on feeling, to which 'The Rime' adheres. The actual event of the Mariner killing the albatross is given very little attention, in fact, just two lines are devoted to it: […] with my cross bow/I shot the albatross'.[22] The significance of its death is the emotional upheaval that follows; guilt on the Mariner's part for doing 'an hellish thing'[23] and anger on the part of the sailors for not believing in the superstition. These extreme emotions are maintained and shifted from to other emotional states through the rest of the work. The ballad delivers on the promise of 'feeling […] gives importance to the action and situation, and not the action and situation to the feeling':[24] What makes the albatross's death important is the feelings it rouses in the characters and what comes of the agitation of their states of mind.
Continuing on the importance of feeling, feelings inspire ideas, not the other way around. It is possible to trace the emotional flux the Mariner experiences. From stanza to stanza there is a shift in emotion. In Part IV alone there are shifts between: fear, reassurance, loneliness, guilt, horror and frustration.[25] It is by the horror of looking 'upon the rotting sea'[26] and being among the dead that the Mariner is inspired to pray. Extreme emotions give rise to the Mariner's actions and ideas. Coleridge's psychological investigation finds that when under great, negative emotional stress, we turn to religion.
The murder of the albatross appears as quite a random event, there is no explanation or motive given. Within the vacuum of the ballad, 'the motiveless murder of a man would truly raise the issue of probability'.[27] Being told from the perspective of a first person narrator, it is within the Mariner's remit to offer an explanation for his behaviour. A lack thereof results in a perfectly plausible affair being turned into something unrealistic. As I explained earlier, feeling inspires action, however, no feeling seems to inspire the Mariner's decision to kill the albatross. Without an explanation, there is no insight into 'the fluxes and refluxes of the mind'.[28] Again, the ballad lacks the truthful depiction of everyday life that the preface promised. 'The Rime' is full of deep symbolism and allegory which critical thought still hasn't fully explained. The convoluted style is possibly Coleridge's attempt to provoke thought in the reader to spark their own psychological investigation. The Biographia Literaria can offer insight into the Mariner's actions: 'where these [stimulants in nature] are not sufficient, the mind contracts and hardens by wants of stimulants: and the man becomes selfish, sensual, gross and hard-hearted'.[29] Through lack of interaction with nature comes a lack of appreciation of it. By not respecting, what Coleridge believed to be, God's creations one becomes the antithesis of the Christian ideal and commits sin. The albatross could be symbolic of guilt. It is hung from the Mariner's neck as a reminder of his transgression by the sailor's who are punishing him for landing them in their predicament. Once he spontaneously comes to respect and love nature, the albatross fall of of his neck by no rational means. It is almost as if the burden of his sin has been lifted after repenting. After his act of penitence, the Mariner is freed from being stuck at sea. Coleridge tracks extreme emotional exertion to the action of seeking solace in religion. By taking Coleridge's philosophy of human nature into account, he successfully pins down 'the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement'.[30]
Although the plot is unrealistic, it does not function in a vacuum. Coleridge makes these 'gross and and violent stimulants'[31] exploratory of real human experience, how we act and become better people when subjected to extreme emotion. Coleridge, using a different aesthetic to Wordsworth, one Wordsworth rejects, achieves the same aim. 'The Rime' rejects one string of Wordsworth's poetic theory to practice another. The Preface's stance on the Gothic is quashed.
Coleridge stated himself that his 'poetic creed does differ from the doctrines promulgated in this preface'.[32] So it is not entirely surprising that 'The Rime' does not follow the theory of poetry outlined in the Preface to the letter. Its engagement with the Gothic genre pits Coleridge's grandly imaginative style against that of Wordsworth. Its inclusion in the collection despite its style which Wordsworth so clearly rejects is testimony to the strength and 'validity of its psychological investigation into the workings of human emotion. The utilisation of the Gothic style to achieve the same ends as Wordsworth gives it merit and place in high brow literature. Due to this not being a comprehensive study of the entire collection, the contents of this research cannot be applied to the rest of the poetry to come to any certain conclusions that the Lyrical Ballads either do or do not put into practice Wordsworthian poetic theory. This research casts cynicism over the accuracy of Wordsworth's theory of poetry. If he could be wrong about the place of the Gothic, then other strands of theory could be wrong as well. Therefore, all other poems in the collection must be held against the Preface to further test if his poetic theory is upheld and if it is accurate.
Word count (incl. Footnotes): 2475
Bibliography
Buchan, A. M., 'The Sad Wisdom of the Mariner', in Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by James D Boulger (United States of America: Prentice-Hall, 1969) pp. 92-111
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Biographia Literaria, ed. By Ernest Rhys, (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Limited, 1939)
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 'The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge. Complete in One Volume, The North American Review, vol. 39 (1834), pp. 437-458
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere', in Romanticism: An Anthology, ed. by Duncan Wu (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) pp. 339 – 357 (p. 345)
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Selected Letters, ed. by H. J. Jackson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987)
Gravil, Robert, 'Coleridge and Wordsworth: Collaboration and Criticism from Salisbury Plain to Aids to Reflection', in The Oxford Handbook of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. by Frederick Burwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) pp. 24-48
Newlyn, Lucy, Reading, Writing and Romanticism: The Age of Reception (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Southey, Robert, 'Review of William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, 'Lyrical Ballads' (1798), in Romanticism: An Anthology, ed. By Duncan Wu (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2012) pp. 751-752
Warren, Robert Penn, 'A Poem of Pure Imagination: An Experiment in Reading', in Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: A Collection of Critical Essays', ed. by James D Boulger (United States of America: Prentice-Hall, 1969) pp. 21-47
Wordsworth, William, 'Preface to the Lyrical Ballads', in Romanticism: An Anthology, ed. by Duncan Wu (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) pp. 506-518
[1] S. T. Coleridge, 'The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge. Complete in One Volume, The North American Review, vol. 39 (1834), pp. 437-458 (p. 442)
[2] William Wordsworth, 'Preface to the Lyrical Ballads', in Romanticism: An Anthology, ed. by Duncan Wu (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) pp. 506-518 (p. 506)
[3] For example, Robert Southey was not entirely praising of Lyrical Ballads. He criticises 'The Rime' for just using antiquated language and spelling in an attempt to emulate the elder poets, and for stanzas, which although beautiful, do not connect to make any sense. Southey declares the experiment a failure .
See, Robert Southey, 'Review of William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, 'Lyrical Ballads' (1798), in Romanticism: An Anthology, ed. by Duncan Wu (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2012) pp. 751-752 (p. 752)
[4] Ibid., p. 506
[5] Ibid., p. 509
[6] Ibid., p. 519
[7] Ibid., p. 519
[8] Ibid., p. 507
[9] See, Fred Botting, Gothic (Great Britain: Routledge, 1996)
[10] Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere', in Romanticism: An Anthology, ed. By Duncan Wu (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) pp. 339 – 357 (p. 345)
[11] Ibid., p. 342
[12] Ibid., p. 345
[13] William Wordsworth, p. 510
[14] Ibid., p. 510
[15] Ibid., p. 510
[16] Robert Gravil, 'Coleridge and Wordsworth: Collaboration and Criticism from Salisbury Plain to Aids to Reflection', in The Oxford Handbook of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. by Frederick Burwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) pp. 24-48 (p. 25)
[17] A. M. Buchan, 'The Sad Wisdom of the Mariner', in Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by James D Boulger (United States of America: Prentice-Hall, 1969) pp. 92-111 (p. 92)
[18] Robert Gravil, p. 26
[19] In a letter, dated March 25, 1801, to William Godwin, Coleridge asks if he has seen the 1800 edition. The tone of the section conveys a tone of resentment.
See, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Selected Letters, ed. by H. J. Jackson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) p. 93
[20] A. M. Buchan, p. 92
[21] Lucy Newlyn, Reading, Writing and Romanticism: The Age of Reception (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) p. 9
[22] Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere', p. 341
[23] Ibid., p. 341
[24] William Wordsworth, p. 509
[25] Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere', pp. 345-346
[26] Ibid., p. 345
[27] Robert Penn Warren, 'A Poem of Pure Imagination: An Experiment in Reading', in Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: A Collection of Critical Essays', ed. by James D Boulger (United States of America: Prentice-Hall, 1969) pp. 21-47 (p. 27)
[28] William Wordsworth, p. 509
[29] Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, p. 182
[30] William Wordsworth, p. 507
[31] Ibid., p. 510
[32] Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, p. 183
I saw Don Giovanni for the first time at the Royal Opera House on June 22nd. I just wish I hadn’t waited so long to see this opera which is well-deserving of its classic status.
The simplistic set was one of the highlights of the evening. I much prefer a simple set. I find it doesn't distract from the performance. Sometimes, a busy and cluttered mise en scène bothers me. For example, though I applaud their efforts, the Bolshoi’s set for their most recent revival of The Sleeping Beauty was a bit too much. The set replicated the grandeur of 17th century France but it was distracting at a time when the dancers deserve the full attention of the audience.
Don Giovanni played out in front of a plain, white panelled wall made up of three parts. The middle (cube shaped) rotated to reveal the internal structure of an all-white house. That may sound boring but it was engaging and supported the plot of the opera. Don Giovanni is an artist and the set is as white as his canvas. At many stages, colours, sepia effects and graphics were projected on it. Just like how Don Giovanni paints his canvases and how he is a canvas himself onto which he paints the illusions that repeatedly fool his lovers.
My favourite aria was ‘Fin ch’han dal vino’. Maltman sang it with a spritely energy which was most appropriate given that the aria is about indulgence and wooing women – Don Giovanni’s favourite pastime. The moment was one where the set and the performance meshed. Don Giovanni’s endless parade of lovers was reflected by the projection spiralling doors on the wall behind him.
What most impressed me was how the tone and atmosphere of the opera transitioned from beginning to end. Act 1 is full of comic moments derived from dramatic irony and side comments to which the other characters are not privy. That comedy bleeds into the second act but drama, anguish and anger rise to the surface and take precedence. The opera seamlessly moved from comedy to pathos.
I was not alone in appreciating the performance. Bravos peppered the applause after arias and many gave the cast a standing ovation when they took their final bows. If you can get hold of a ticket for any of the remaining performances, I highly recommend you go. It is thoroughly entertaining with plenty of humour, charming characters, rousing music and strong performances from the cast.
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