22 Malcolm Guite Interview Part 2: COVID-19 and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

 

"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?'"


This is the opening stanza to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1798 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, an epic saga of sin, remorse, regret and redemption set in the tale of an aged sailor, telling of his woes to someone about to enter into a wedding celebration.
 
Why poetry in the midst of a pandemic, though? What does Coleridge have to say to us in 2020? 
Much in every way. In April of this year, several celebrities took turns reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner online (https://bit.ly/Ancient_Mariner). It was a surprising success. As The Atlantic noted in May (https://bit.ly/TheAtlanticMag), it is a poem written in 1798 for people in 2020. Though over two centuries removed from our own, there appears within Coleridge's verse a timeless resonance with our own turbulent times.
 
Indeed, poetry, parable, metaphor, and the imagination are absolutely essential for our ongoing defense of the Christian faith in the cultural darkness in which we find ourselves.


On part two of my discussion with Malcolm Guite, we talk more about Coleridge's influence on Guite's thought and the important role imagination plays in our conversations about everything from moonlight to the glory of God. 

Malcolm Guite is an Anglican Priest and is the Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge where he also teaches for the Divinity Faculty. He lectures widely in England and North America on theology and literature. Mr. Guite has published poetry, theology, and literary criticism, and worked as a librettist. His books include Word in the Wilderness, Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination, and Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

 BONUS LINKS: Here are some additional resources:

• Malcolm Guite Blog: https://bit.ly/GuiteBlog


• A Spell in the Library, Malcolm Guite's YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/MalcolmGuite


• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poetry Foundation: https://bit.ly/SamuelColeridge

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