Samuel Taylor Coleridge spent the first two weeks of the month of August 1902 walking the hills around Scafell in England. Ironically, Coleridge never described his ascent of Scafell in the “Hymn”, instead, it was a hypothetical setting of the Vale of Chamouni. The Morning Post published “Hymn Prior to Sun-Rise” in the Vale of Chamouni in September of that same year. In “Hymn,” Mont Blanc, on a gloomy day, is confronted by the poet who becomes overwhelmed with Nature’s “secret delight” and invites all of nature to join him as he sings a celestial praise song for God. Wordsworth hated the poem. Keith Thomas (a romantic critic) says that Wordsworth felt “embarrassed by the poem” and went so far as labeling “Hymn”, “a mock sublime exercise” (Thomas). Thomas asserts that Wordsworth became so bitter after reading “Hymn”, that he was “afraid that Coleridge would publish a poem on a subject that he already knew well” (Thomas 102). Thomas contends that Coleridge’s poem was likened to Wordsworth’s work because it had a similar genre. However, Wordsworth felt Coleridge’s “overly confident voice” to be unearned and unauthentic. This is because Coleridge hadn’t even visited Mont Blanc.
Wordsworth published The Prelude’s first book three years after the original edition. Book Six recounts Wordsworth and Robert Jones’ 1790 trips through France, the Alps and Switzerland. Historicists and formalists alike find the “Simplon Pass Episode” of particular interest. Wordsworth’s and Jones’ anticipation of a dramatic scene on the summit is shattered when a farmer informs them that they are not at the precise point where they crossed over the Alps. Wordsworth passes by the expected point of transcendence but continues his descent to the Vale of Gondo. Wordsworth contrasts this intellectual experience by describing his experience as staring into a “soulless vision” of Mont Blanc (6.527). The Prelude’s Book Six contains episodes that reveal Wordsworth’s ego. Thomas claims that the “Hymn”, Coleridge’s poem, is a “negative precursive model” that Wordsworth must fight at all cost to oppose, while also appropriating the strategies of the Hymn (Thomas, 83) His friend, who usurped a genre Wordsworth created-the Sublime – must be reclaimed by him. David Miall does not give much credit to Coleridge when it comes to interpreting the Simplon Pass story. Miall, in “The Alps Refused: Wordsworth at Simplon Pass,” states, “The passage structure overall…shows Wordsworth displacing picturesque nature for an eco-participatory account of Nature.” Wordsworth is averse to dramatic landscapes and tends instead to find transcendence within the Vale of Gondo. This reading claims that Wordsworth found transcendence in the Vale of Gondo 14 years after he wrote these lines. Wordsworth chose to focus on his descent and the trees over the more traditional views of mountains and sharp peaks. The historicist view, which holds that Wordsworth rewrote “Hymn”, due to Coleridge’s relative incompetence as a Sublime poet, reveals Wordsworth’s denial of picturesque. Thomas and Miall use the same textual evidence for similar arguments: Thomas points to the picturesque of Coleridge’s “Hymn”, as well as the sublimity of Wordsworth descend in the Vale of Gondo, to explain Wordsworth countering Coleridge. Miall, on the other hand, uses the same textual evidence to demonstrate Wordsworth denial of scenic to venerate Wordsworth’s subtler, “participatory” views in the Vale. Both accounts have merit, but fail to mention a hybridized view, which claims that Book Six simultaneously rewrote Hymn and denied its picturesque.
Coleridge’s hymn has six one-line apostrophes which name the idyllic inhabitants of Chamouni Valley. Coleridge mentions images of the Alps such as “flowers,” “wild goats,” and “eagles” (64-66). Coleridge might have included Mont Blanc stereotypes because he didn’t visit it. Wordsworth can satisfy both historicists as well as formalists in Book Six by not mentioning stereotypical Mont Blanc images. Wordsworth is adamant about avoiding the stereotypical images of Mont Blanc. He finds no transcendence in his work, as Coleridge did, but only “dumb…cataracts”. “Motionless…waves,” which reduce him to “small birds” or “leafy tree” for a more concrete experience. Wordsworth and Coleridge are different in that Coleridge’s speaker is overwhelmed by Mont Blanc, while Wordsworth is constantly striving to see beyond the mundane.
The first 20 lines of Coleridge’s “Hymn” show that Nature’s beautiful immediately overwhelms Coleridge’s Speaker. In these lines, he asks Mont Blanc directly, “Hast Thou a Charm to Stay the Morning-Star / On His Steep Course?” This shows a direct engagement between the speaker and his subject. The speaker’s question soon turns into a form of conversational praise for Mont Blanc. He says that Mont Blanc has a “bald horrible head” (3). Coleridge also personifies Mont Blanc by calling it a man. He compares Coleridge’s relationship with nature to that of two humans. Coleridge quickly transforms his mountain personification to show the overwhelming nature that overwhelms him. Coleridge’s view is altered when he sees the mountain rising “silently,” piercing a stormy sky. The speaker’s view on Nature shifts in the first stanza from one of friendliness to that of a “dreadful and silent” force that inspires “entrance[ment]”, wonder and worship (13, 15-16). This change suggests the speaker gets an answer, that nature isn’t a friend, but rather a “dread and silent” power that induces “entrance[ment],” wonder, and worship (13; 15-16).
Wordsworth recalls, in his first account, that he saw Mount Blanc with Robert Jones. “We grieved / to have a lifeless image on our eyes, which had usurped a living thought, that could no longer be” (6.526-429). This line is hard to understand if you attribute it to Thomas who believes they are “directly counter” to Coleridge’s lines in “Hymn”. Or, in Miall’s terms, that these lines imply denial of picturesque. Wordsworth does not feel wonder or awe, but rather “grieving,” almost as if he is grieving for something. Wordsworth is asking whether or not Mont Blanc’s lack of soul has any negative connotations in his mind. The image supplants a living thought, just as Coleridge lost his bodily senses from his thoughts. However, Wordsworth’s power over Mont Blanc allows “wondrous Vale ” to “make great amends with Wordsworth” (6.528 ; 530 ; 533). Wordsworth would be better off focusing on the Vale rather than Mont Blanc. This is because the image has no soul. Wordsworth “heart jumped up” as soon as he saw the Vale (6.510), shortly before spotting Mont Blanc. Wordsworth may be excited to see the “green recesses” and participate in Nature’s spirituality (as Miall describes), but he could also be anticipating his future downplaying Mont Blanc to counter “Hymn”.
The lines 542-558 of Book Six are perhaps the best evidence that Simplon Pass was a response by Wordsworth to “Hymn”. Wordsworth’s repeated use of “we” or “our” without mentioning the personal “I” could refer to Robert Jones and himself. If read in conjunction with Wordsworth and Coleridge’s friendship, it gives insight into Simplon pass. Wordsworth’s opening lines can describe Jones and Wordsworth, or they could be a comment on Coleridge in relation to Mont Blanc.
We have seen everything in this vast circuit.
Or Heard, was suited to our unripe State
The heart and intellect. Simple strains
The pure air of life is the feeling.
We weren’t left untouched. (6.542-546)
Book Six could have been the product of a “unripe” heart or mind. Wordsworth may be reflecting on the “Mock Sublime”, Coleridge’s poem, and criticizing it as immature. Wordsworth might be saying “Sam that was immature of you to create a poem on a place you had never been.” Wordsworth suggests that the criticism of Wordsworth was unfair, but it also reflected Coleridge’s own experience with Scafell. Wordsworth may have been reconciling with Coleridge through these lines, as well as his criticisms of the “Hymn”. Thomas suggests that this problem is resolved in Book Six. He says Wordsworth’s “fierce opposition” to “Hymn”, becomes a positive engagement with the text.
Wordsworth was driven to change the last 55 lines of Coleridge’s transcendental poem in the Vale of Gondo by his ego, even though reconciliation might have been possible. The last section of “Hymn”, lines 25 to 85, contains 26 exclamations. Many of these are apostrophes that call out the voice of God or the voices of Nature to praise God. Although these praises seem obvious to the reader, they may have been the primary reason that Wordsworth is called the “Mock Sublime”. Coleridge poses rhetorical queries to the mountains in a few scattered apostrophes. For example, “Who made thee the parent of perennial streams?” or “Who bid the sun clothed you with rainbows?” These questions are not important to a poet who is captivated by his surroundings. Wordsworth is more interested in the effect of God on him than expressing the glory of God. Wordsworth is trying to rewrite Coleridge’s question in the “Hymn”. Coleridge wants God’s knowledge that the “Earth” with its thousand voices praises God. Wordsworth, however, states the implications for mankind. Wordsworth’s main goal is to demonstrate how a Sublime poetry should reflect the human experience rather than being written in a voice that Thomas describes as “unself-conscious” and “assuming mastery over external things”. Wordsworth relates his anti-climactic Simplon Pass experience to his anticipation and self-awareness. But when he breaks the bond with this person, he savors “thoughts / that are their perfection and reward.” (6.612-613).
It is clear that Wordsworth is not responding to Coleridge as described in the above paragraph. Morton D. Paley draws attention in his book, “This Valley of Wonders”, to Wordsworth’s 1844 statement:
“[Coleridge] was able to summon up images or series of pictures in his mind, that no visible observation can make more real.” One remarkable example of this is the poem he wrote in the Vale of Chamouni. He never went there or was even near it.
Paley argues that Wordsworth’s statement acknowledges Coleridge as having a “signature for poetic power”, but also acknowledges the work’s questionable sources. Wordsworth’s reaction to “Hymn”, more than half a hundred years after it was published, may have changed. Thomas, Miall and formalists alike, have to be able to read Book Six as though Wordsworth were aware of his own interpretations. Simplon Pass or the Vale of Gondo could be subtle counters to Coleridge’s “Hymn” as well endorsements of Wordsworth’s desire for a more engaging relationship with nature and Sublime.
