Students, I’m in the process of sending your papers back to you. If you go into the dropbox in OAKS where you turned the paper in, you should find your grade and an attachment–your paper with my marginal and final comment. If you do not see any marginal comments (this especially for those who used .pdf format), let me know. In the meantime, read this excerpt from one paper–a particularly good example of close reading:
Flowers, clouds, groves, and the ocean are all colored in a warm hue by the sun. At the end of this stanza, there is a metaphor in “as I have stood, silent with swimming sense” (Line 38). To understand this line, several things should be explained. In my opinion, when people swim in water, they do not feel weight, which means they float randomly. There is no limitation and restriction. Water soothes people’s feelings and minds, getting rid of physical and mental pressure. Also, when people soak in water, the skin of their whole body senses the water directly without any turbulence. Coleridge uses this metaphor to describe that he immerses in natural beauty, as opposed to merely seeing. He relaxes in the dazzling nature, talking about super nature in “as veil the Almighty Spirit, when yet he makes Spirits perceive his presence” (Line 42).