The scene of the above excerpt from "The Lady of the Lake is laid between Lochs Achray and Katrine in the western highlands of Perthshire. The place, the pass of the man, a rough, precipitous defile, by reason of the thickly matted undergrowth and jagged rocks, is called the Trosachs. It was here Fitz-James (James V. of Scotland) lost his horse and gained the battle of Beal' an Duine. Such a battle in detail was never fought; Scott drew on his imagination from a small skirmish which occurred after the reign of James.

According to the poem, at daybreak Roderick Dhu was mortally wounded by Fitz-James, and was taken to the guard-room of Stirling Castle. At noon on this day began the combat in the Trosachs that lasted until sunset. In the prison, Allan-Bane, the old minstrel, sings the victory of Mar and Moray over the Gaels, at the conclusion of which the wounded Roderick dies, knowing that Douglas and ClanAlpine have passed from power in Scotland.

(370) Benvenue. A mountain 2,386 feet high, to the southwest of Loch Achray. (383) Benledi's distant hill. Benledi, "Mountain of God," 2,882 feet high, to the northeast of Loch Achray. Note the passivity of the scene: that calm which comes before the storm. The pathetic fallacy is used: the thunder cloud is Moray's force in the east. Nature feels the approaching catastrophe to the Gaels.

(400-426) Here we can feel the rapid approach of the army of doom to Clan-Alpine by reason of the trimeters which, at intervals, follow the tetrameters. Seldom has the martial been portrayed so that we can feel it as in this three-fold, booming, swinging verse. The power

of the movement of the narrative depends on these trimeters. (452) Tinchel. "A circle of sportsmen, who, by surrounding a great space, and gradually narrowing, brought immense quantities of deer together, which usually made desperate efforts to break through the Tinchel." Scott.

(457-458) "Like wave with crest of sparkling foam,

Right onward did Clan-Alpine come."

Here is a fine example of simplicity in simile, necessitated by the rapidity of the attack, no time being given for slowness, for an elaborate simile such as is given by Tennyson in "Lancelot and Elaine" in his pentameter portrayal of the line of knights who endeavoured to bear Lancelot back to defeat at the barrier of the lists:

"Bare, as a wild wave in the wide North-sea,

Green-glimmering toward the summit, bears, with all

Its stormy crests that smoke against the skies,
Down on a bark, and overbears the bark,
And him that helms it, so they overbore
Sir Lancelot and his charger. . . .

Observe that the

(495) The battle has rolled from noon to sunset. minstrel has changed his position to the Katrine opening of the Trosachs, and that the storm has descended upon the loch at the moment Clan-Alpine has been driven out of the defile a disbanded force.

Scott's use of dramatic background in this instance is artistically comparable to Shakespere's in " Julius Cæsar," " Macbeth,” and “King Lear."

This contest and the battle of Flodden described in "Marmion" should be compared from the point of view of excellence in narration.

1

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

1772-1834

All that he did excellently might be bound up in twenty pages, but it should be bound in pure gold.- Stopford Brooke.

Optional Poems

Genevieve; Or, Love.

Morning Hymn To Mt. Blanc,
Christabel.

Work Without Hope.

Phrases

Alas! they had been friends in youth:
But whispering tongues can poison truth.

And in our life alone does nature live. — Dejection : An Ode.

Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,

And Hope without an object cannot live.

- Work Without Hope.

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

PART I

It is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ?

5 "The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,

ΙΟ

And I am next of kin;

The guests are met, the feast is set:

Mayst hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand
"There was a ship," quoth he.

"Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

He holds him with his glittering eye -
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
15 And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:

He cannot chuse but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

20 The bright-eyed Mariner.

"The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top.

25

"The Sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he!

And he shone bright, and on the right

Went down into the sea.

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;

35 Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot chuse but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man, 40 The bright-eyed Mariner.

45

"And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

"With sloping masts and dipping prow,

As who pursued with yell and blow

Still treads the shadow of his foe,

And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,

50 And southward aye we fled.

55

"And now there came both mist and snow,

And it grew wondrous cold:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

"And through the drifts the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen:

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken

The ice was all between.

"The ice was here, the ice was there,

60 The ice was all around: