| The
poems quoted in the film are William Cowper's"The Castaway," William
Shakespeare's"Sonnet 116," Edmund Spenser's The Fairie Queene,
Book V, Canto 2, verse 39 and Hartley Coleridge's sonnet. The specific
poems have been added by Emma Thompson when writing the
screenplay. In the book, Austen mentions that Willoughby
enjoys William Cowper and Sir Walter Scott.
William Cowper's "The Castaway"
Shakespeare's "Sonnet 116"
Edmund Spenser, The
Fairie Queene, Book V, Canto 2, verse 39.
Hartley Coleridge Sonnet
Cowper Poem
The poem Edward Ferrars reads aloud to the
Dashwoods (and whose reading is scorned by Marianne) is William
Cowper's ”The Castaway,” (1799), a beautifully sad poem about a man
lost at sea, but it can be read on another level, as well. It
can be said to describe the inner torment of a man lost to despair.
The
Castaway
Obscurest night involved the sky,
The Atlantic billows roared,
When such a destined wretch as I,
Washing headlong from on board,
Of friends, of hope, of all bereft,
His floating home forever left.
No braver chief could Albion boast
Than he with whom he went,
Nor ever ship left Albion's coast,
With warmer wishes sent.
He loved them both, but both in vain,
Nor him beheld, nor her again.
Not long beneath the whelming brine,
Expert to swim, he lay;
Nor soon he felt his strength decline,
Or courage die away;
But waged with death a lasting strife,
Supported by despair of life.
He shouted: nor his friends had failed
To check the vessel's course,
But so the furious blast prevailed,
That, pitiless perforce,
They left their outcast mate behind,
And scudded still before the wind.
Some succour yet they could afford;
And, as such storms allow,
The cask, the coop,
the floated cord,
Delayed not to bestow.
But he (they knew) nor ship, nor shore,
Whate'er they gave, should visit more.
Nor, cruel as it seemed, could he
Their haste himself condemn,
Aware that flight, in such a sea,
Alone could rescue them;
Yet bitter felt it still to die
Deserted, and his friends so nigh.
He long survives, who lives an hour
In
ocean, self-upheld;
And so long he, with unspent power,
His destiny repelled;
And ever, as the minutes flew,
Entreated help, or cried, "Adieu!"
At length, his transient respite past,
His comrades, who before
Had heard his voice in every blast,
Could catch the sound no more.
For then, by toil subdued, he drank
The stifling wave, and then he sank.
No poet wept him, but the page
Of narrative sincere,
That tells his name, his worth, his age,
Is wet with Anson's tear.
And tears by bards or heroes shed
Alike immortalize the dead.
I therefore purpose not, or dream,
Descanting on his fate,
To give the melancholy theme
A more enduring date;
But misery still delights to trace
Its semblance in another's case.
No voice divine the storm allayed,
No light propitious shone,
When, snatched from all effectual aid,
We perished, each alone;
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in deeper gulfs than he.
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William
Shakespeare's ”Sonnet 116”
This is one of Shakespeare's most famous
sonnets, and during the course of the film, Willoughby and Marianne
mention the title, so it makes it quite easy to recognize!
This is the poem Willoughby and Marianne take turns reciting the
morning after her fall when he comes to visit. Later in the
film, when Marianne is out in the rain staring at his estate, she
recites “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration
find”.
The sonnet is famously about the unchangeable
quality of true love, something Marianne believes in
passionately. But while Shakespeare is mentioned in Austen's
text, it is not this lovely sonnet, it is Hamlet,
which was going to be read by the family before Willoughby left so
abruptly-
Let
me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit
impediments. Love is not love
Which
alters when it alteration finds,
Or
bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That
looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is
the star to every wandering bark,
Whose
worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's
not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within
his bending sickle's compass come:
Love
alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But
bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If
this be error and upon me proved,
I
never writ, nor no man ever loved.
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Edmund
Spenser, The Fairie Queene, Book V, Canto 2,
verse 39.
This is the poem that Col. Brandon reads to a
convalescing Marianne. She seems to approve of his reading,
and this is the first evidence we have that Marianne is changing her
opinion of the good Colonel. I've modernised the spelling to
make it easier to read.
Of things unseen how canst thou deem aright,
Then answered the righteous Artegall,
Sith thou misdeem'st so much of things in sight?
What though the sea with waves continual
Do eat the earth, it is no more at all:
Ne is the earth the less, or loseth ought,
For whatsoever from one place doth fall,
Is with the tide unto an other brought:
For there is nothing lost, that may be found,
if sought.
This is just a small section of a long
poem--six books of 12 cantos each, and each canto had many, many
verses. This implies that Col. Brandon has been spending a
lot of time reading to Marianne!
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Hartley
Coleridge Sonnet
This poem, ”Sonnet Number VII,” by Hartley
Coleridge (son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the fathers of
Romantic poetry in England), is read to Elinor by Marianne before they
leave their father's home for the cottage in the country.
Hartley Coleridge was born in 1797, and he did
not publish poetry until he was in his early 20s. Therefor,
it is unlikely that the Dashwood girls (or Austen) knew his work, but
the poem is “close enough” in terms of period, and it certainly
represents Marianne's ideals.
Sonnet VII
Is love a fancy, or a feeling? No.
It is immortal as immaculate Truth,
'Tis not a blossom shed as soon as youth,
Drops from the stem of life--for it will grow,
In barren regions, where no waters flow,
Nor rays of promise cheats the pensive gloom.
A darkling fire, faint hovering o'er a tomb,
That but itself and darkness nought doth show,
It is my love's being yet it cannot die,
Nor will it change, though all be changed
beside;
Though fairest beauty be no longer fair,
Though vows be false, and faith itself deny,
Though sharp enjoyment be a suicide,
And hope a spectre in a ruin bare.
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