| 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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