Rivermen : a romantic iconography of the river and the source / Frederic S. Colwell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Colwell, Frederic S. (Frederic Stewart), 1933-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English poetry--19th century--History and criticism.

English poetry.

English literature--History and criticism.

English literature.

Romanticism--Great Britain.

Romanticism.

Rivers in literature.

Physical Description:

220 p. ; 24 cm.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Kingston [Ont.] : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1989.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Rivermen examines the mythic context and psychological dimensions of the river and its source through an investigation of the recurring motifs associated with the source in classical and English literature -the heroic quest, the river journey, and the naiad or muse. Frederic Colwell focuses on the writings of those redoubtable rivermen, the English Romantic poets. He explores poems by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley, showing that the image of the river is used in their work as a compelling archetype and a metaphor for the nature and process of the creative impulse. From the preface: "Unlike the rhythms of oceans, rivers have direction and a purposive flow. The river's will is always its own, not laid down by man, for whom the river passage demands a surrender to its will, its currents and eddies. To move with the flow is to course with time and change; to stand astride or view it from a height offers the prophetic stance by which we contemplate its entire passage, its past, present, and the brightening waters or rippling shoals ahead."

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Riverscapes: A Prologue

“One Perpetual Progress”: The Wordsworthian River

Sources

The Guardian and the Spring

Stations on the Sacred River: Maid, Woman, Bower, and Wilderness

The English Nymph: Her Literary and Social History

Mistress of the Sounding Streams: “Endymion”

Dianas Train: Lamia, Belles Dames, and Deceiving Elves

Shelley’s Anabasis: Heroic Landscape and the River Journey in “Alastor”

“The Witch of Atlas” and the Mythic Geography of the Nile

Epilogue

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-7735-6210-9

OCLC:

929121175