Or James Dean? Or Kurt Cobain? Or...think of any young doomed genius. Part of the enduring appeal of Chatterton has been his untimely demise at the age of 17, ending the possibility of future works of genius. Is Chatterton the archetype for subsequent versions of this story?
lyrics here
But the myth hangs from the genius of the artist who has died too soon. Chatterton's poems continued to be influential and widely read, even after they were widely known to have been creations of the 18th century, not the 15th.
Why? For Friday, look over the poems the group presented on Wednesday, and add to the mix "An Excelente Balade of Charitie" (p. 455 - 458).
Two ways to respond to this post:
(1) Explore the content of any of the Chatterton poems assigned: What story are they telling or what argument are they making?
(2) Explore the aesthetic dimension of these poems: What are the pleasures of Chatterton's poetry? What (apart from the faux ancient spelling) sets it apart from the other poetry you have encountered in this class? What about it would have felt fresh, original, or particularly inspired to a C18 reader?
Deadline: Friday (4/8), 1pm.
6 comments:
There are many aesthetic qualities in Chatterton's poetry. Mynstrelles Song has strong imagery, analogies, and lyrical repition. I think there is room in this poem for the reader to look beyond the surface meaning. For example, he says that the hair is as black as a winter's night and complexion as white as the summer snow. It emphasizes the imagery and plays with colors. It seems to not just be describing the physical characteristics but also eludes to the symbolic meaning attached to colors. Furthermore, the gothic and melancholy theme is very interesting. In a devastating way it is both beautiful and powerful. There is an entertainment aspect in the dramatic nature of the poem.
The introduction to “An Excelente Balade of Charitie” calls Chatterton’s poem a “parable based on Jesus’s story of the Good Samaritan,” which has “wider issues in its sight, including religious hypocrisy and social inequality.” The story itself is fairly straightforward. It begins on a sunny day, describing natural images such as soft pears and singing birds. But then a storm rolls in and the story focuses on a “hapless pilgrim” who’s outside by a covent with no money and nowhere to go. The poem describes in detail both the pathetic position of the pilgrim and the violent nature of the storm. This detail makes it seem worse when the priest comes and denies the pilgrim any money. This section of the poem obviously focuses on religious hypocrisy; the priest shows signs of wealth (he has a cloak of fine cloth and a gold button) and yet he’s unwilling to help the person he’s ostensibly doing his work for. Instead, a poor friar ends up helping the pilgrim, which again echoes the Biblical story of the Good Samaritan. Chatterton explicitly states the moral at the end of his poem: “Or give the mittee will, or give the gode man power.” Chatterton is asking that everyone give and help those less fortunate then themselves.
Chatterton's "Onn Oure Ladies Chyrche" explicates the description of a Church. What is interesting in his story is that he never actually uses the word "Church." He describes the structure and the "Builder's vertues," painting the Church more as having human qualities. Chatterton, in the second stanza, also uses language to make it seem as though the Church is constructed of human virtues and despair.
Chatterton's use of language is different from the other poetry we have read much in conjunction with what I described above. His use of language and personification makes the Church a being rather than just a Church. He also uses the image of the "Builder" to point to an actual builder or a higher power, constructing a set of beliefs. What is interesting about Chatterton's poetry is that it is so open to interpretation--there is no right or wrong answer in dissecting his poetry and finding its purpose.
We saw this on Monday as well, but I think it's important that Chatterton provides footnotes and supplemental information to assist readers. This is not something we've seen in poems up to this point, and I think that the inclusion of explanatory material signals an important transition in the very purpose of poetry. If notes are being supplied to help readers, it's no longer just leisurely introspective writing; there's a point being made, and the author clearly wants others to see that point and avoid confusion.
Syntactically, the poetry we've read this week is much more exciting than poems we've read up to this point, for reasons that we've already hit in class and on the blog (e.g., alliteration, rhyme). We're seeing things such as exclamation points and satisfying couplets that, for lack of a better way to put it, just sound pleasing.
This poem's message is also much more pleasing to a general audience than some of the stuff we've read. The idea of "An Excelente Balade of Charitie," as succinctly summarized above, is a telling of Chatterton's version of the story of the Good Samaritan which uses religious ideas to critique the Church. These types of stories (which are sympathetic to the poor) were in part brought to the mainstream by the working-class writers we looked at, and Chatterton is using those ideas to appeal to a general audience.
After reading "An Excelente Balade of Charitie", Chatterton's poetry seems to be aesthetically pleasing because the story is easy to follow, the imagery is simple but descriptive, and the story was probably very easy for C18 readers to relate to. We mentioned in class recently that readers would probably welcome a departure from heroic couplets and the long, syntactically difficult sentences that we've thus far experienced in our readings. This poem definitely provides that. Additionally, the alliteration and the very simple descriptions at the beginning (of apples ripening and birds signing) make the rhythm of the poem very pleasurable, almost song-like.
The headnote to the poem states that "An Excelente Balade of Charitie" became Chatterton's most admired poem, and I think that might come mostly from the story. The topic of religious hypocrisy seems to be important at any given time period, so Chatterton's storyline can easily relate to his contemporary time period and establish a cross-temporal relevance for C18 readers.
Besides lacking authenticity, Chatterton's poems offer many of the same attractive qualities as respected poems from his day and those from the medieval era he imitated. In "An Excelente Balade of Chartie," he skillfully tells a sentimental and didactic story within the strict paradigm of a "ababbcc" rhyme scheme. The language of his poems, though being the principal method of his forgery, still elicit that beautiful mystique of Middle English. So it's not surprising that Chatterton's work remained popular in spite of the realization of it's deceitfulness, especially when also considering his premature demise, which, if effecting anything, made his work even more intriguing.
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