Romantic Poets in the Wild is back after a bit of a break, ringing in our 2025 series with a Bristol-based poet heavily inspired by what he calls the “RomLitScape.” But first, a call for contributors:
Are you a creative writer or artist who might be too busy, or simply too shy to pursue publication? Are you an academic with a creative flair, or a creative who works with academia in mind? Finally, do you feel inspired by Romanticism and Romantic writers/writing? BARS wants to feature your work on the BARS Blog’s ‘Romantic Poets in the Wild’ series! We are looking for more writers and artists to feature (and publish) on the BARS Blog and would love to hear from you! Please get in touch with me, Comms Fellow Adam Neikirk (adamneikirk@gmail.com), or Comms Officer Amy Wilcockson (britishassociationromantic@gmail.com) if you would like to contribute. We’re not just looking for poems, but also short prose, excerpts, photographs, painting, and anything else that fits the broad theme of creative work inspired by the legacy of Romanticism.
Ralph says: “I started off, many years ago, as a SLAM poet (in London and Bristol), but grew out of wanting to deliver poetry/spoken word in exchange for acclaim. A seminal event in my subsequent journey was being commissioned by the Year of the Artist (2000) to be English Heritage’s writer-in-residence at Tintagel for a year, which resulted in a strong identification with Place in my work, as well as a leaning towards the Epic.
This led further to an interest in representation of Place as in maps and mapping technologies. Somewhat later I happened to pitch the right idea at the right time (rare!) to Mobile Bristol, who were working with the University of Bristol and Hewlett-Packard Labs to develop ‘Mediascape’ technology – the first platform which enabled audio to be attached to Place, GPS-triggered and played only in that designated/mapped Place. Tying audio to Place is a totally new way of thinking of audio and what it can do.”
Ralph’s ACE-funded located audio project is called “Geo-locating the RomLitScape,” which allows travelers to become audience members who can “eavesdrop” on conversations and recitations from Romantic writers such as Dorothy Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. These scripted conversations, recorded by professional voice actors and triggered via GPS, allow place to fuse with the historical memory of sound embedded in creative writing, giving rise to a new, emergent dimension of literary immersion. Ralph was kind enough to share a partial script below, as well as a related graphic that shows how Coleridge’s famous poem can be heard nearby the statue of the ‘Ancient Mariner’:
Audio associated with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
- Dorothy Wordsworth to Mary Hutchinson; Alfoxton, 20 November 1797
We have been on another tour: we set out last Monday evening at half-past four. The
evening was dark and cloudy; we went eight miles, William and Coleridge employing
themselves in laying the plan of a ballad [The Ancient Mariner], to be published with some
pieces of William’s. . . William’s play is finished, and sent to the managers of the Covent
Garden Theatre. We have not the faintest expectation that it will be accepted.
In The Bell Inn, Watchet
Dorothy I bid thee good evening, gentlemen
Coleridge As do we, dark maid, whose eye doth glitter bold and free, and doth the midnight wood wander, hark! what marketh she there?
Dorothy Behind yon old oak tree there lurks an emerald green snake. Perhaps a woman. Hisss!
Coleridge Mm – there’s a poem, if not a life in’t…
William Come, dear sister. Sit down. Do you want a drink? We’re on the flip, then we
dine. Are you hungry?
Dorothy We timed that well – did you see the sun set across Blue Anchor Bay? Wonderful!
Coleridge The Sun came up upon the left, out of the Sea came he –
Dorothy And the bladderwrack – ‘twas as if the very deep did rot
William Yes, I was telling Coleridge –
Coleridge And he shone bright, and on the right, went down into the Sea
William So simple, too simple – what would friend Southey say of that?
Coleridge We know what he would say – and –
Coleridge & Dorothy We don’t care!
[ALL THREE LAUGH]
William Landlord, more flip all round!
AUDIO HERE: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Poetry: excerpted from the album Christabel Released
Ralph says: “a residency with the (then) Quantocks AONB (now the Quantocks National Landscape) during which Christabel entreated me at midnight on the winter equinox at Lady Well to release her from the over 200 year-long limbo imposed upon her by a certain ST Coleridge failing to finish the ballad. The Lady being somewhat, er… persuasive, I had no choice but to complete Christabel and bring closure to Christabel, Sir Leoline, Geraldine, and Sir Roland de Vaux. Christabel Released is a dark Gothic ballad of demonic possession, the ending of innocence and the passing of the Age of Chivalry. It takes 3 to 3 ½ hrs to declaim (I am a declamatory or live-art poet). Christabel Released was premiered at Halsway Manor in the Quantocks (the
National Centre for the Folk Arts) in 2014 over a long weekend (with period-authentic supper and dress), and has been performed at venues round the West Country.
Listener comments include “My partner dragged me along. I thought ‘3 hours of POETRY?!? No way!’ But time passed like a dream – was that really 3 hours? I neverwanted it to end!”, and; “It seemed Coleridge had come back among us!”“
(Christabel’s mother manifests to save her daughter … of whom, it seems, she disapproves) ‘Mother!’ exclaimed the maid in tones of wonder, ‘O Mother dear! Is that thee, under yon old oak tree? O prithee mercy upon your daughter forlorn, For whom didst die the day I was born! Have mercy, else I am like to perish, By my own father no longer cherish’d; E’er since that lady appeared, that Geraldine, Are my heart, my will and, above all, my father no longer mine!’ The spectre moved as if compell’d, A tale of woe and fright to tell; Full pathetic it was to see, its writhing in perplexity;. Its slender arms reached out to Christabel, Who quoth, ‘O Mother, Mother dear, shall all be well?’ No word, no sound issued forth the spectre: What it purposed Christabel could only conjecture; Yet felt she as it touched by an effulgence, A touch, perhaps, of heavenly indulgence, And an inwardly motherly voice spoke to her heart: ‘Take courage, my daughter, for I’ll take your part.’ Then grew the radiance ever brighter: As the souls of men ascending to the golden realms grow ever lighter; Become more concentrated in their core; And, incandescent, burn their way thru’ heaven’s door. ‘That power hadst thou but once,’ spake the spectre, ‘now I have thee - Thy power is dark, and of the night; Mine is at the bidding of my daughter, and of the light: Begone, fiend!’ Brighter then, and brighter as it seemed, Shone the spectre, as Geraldine screamed: ‘Mercy, have mercy upon me, mother mild, ‘T was not my wish to besiege thy child!’ ‘Then whose, demon-stock?’ Set forth the mother: ‘Doth the succubus have father, sister, brother? Art thou witch, warlock, devil’s sporn? In which measureless cavern wast thou born? In which savage place, devil haunted? Out of which hag’s unclean womb wast enchanted? Speak!’
Ralph says: “I (foolhardily) promised to ‘finish Kubla Khan’ for the recent 2025 Words in Watchet Literary Festival (Coleridge always insisted KK was ‘a fragment’, rudely interrupted by the infamous ‘Man from Porlock’ just over the hill from Watchet. My ‘Xanadu Remixed’ is a work in progress and was delivered as such at the festival” (editor’s comment: how did I miss this?)
Extract from XANADU REMIXED (work-in-progress) So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round; And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. And in his gardens was Kubla wont to roam To meditate in solitude, to be alone To seek respite from clamouring voices, from affairs of state To be soothed by the voice of the river, the sacred Alph Which through the gardens joyful ran, Then plunged down, down, down to caverns measureless to man So Kubla did himself lay down On marble bench of sumptuous design Scrolls lion-headed, ‘neath purple graped vine under incense-bearing tree, of outlook sublime To close his weary eyes Surrounded by sinous, tinkling rills Fed by the crystal-clear waters from forests ancient as the hills Straight into deep slumber he fell Here, in a paradise designed all desires to quell Momentarily shivered then Gaia, the mother earth, And bolt upright shot he - When I dream, am I the dreamer, or doth the dream dream me? There, before him in his sight Stood a figure calculated to affright: A wild-eyed vision, hefting ram’s horn A vision of dread, a vision of scorn Wearing wild regalia An open-jawed bear’s head amongst other-worldly paraphernalia ‘Twas a fur-pelted shaman from the Lands of the North What nightmare, what cause had him called forth? The birds did all lift off in alarm, did outcry ‘Beware! Beware! He of the flashing eyes, the floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with fear and dread For he with rancid fat is a-smeared And spittle flecks his wild grey beard!’
Epilogue: more info about Ralph’s project, and some links!
No longer do you need to listen to a CD, or a radio programme, or even read a book about the Romantic poets – you can go to Alfoxton Hall and hear Dorothy and William Wordsworth and Coleridge discussing their new invention, Romantic poetry, ‘the poetry of the sublime in the voice of the common Man’; or you can go and stand outside the Bell Inn in Watchet and eavesdrop on them creating The Ancient Mariner.
Or at least you will be able to when I complete my ongoing ‘Lost Voices of the Romantic Poets’ project (Stage1 – research, scriptwriting, voicing by voice actors – thus far funded by Arts Council England; Stage2 -geo-locating the dialogues as audio-in-place across the Quantock Hills etc – in progress)
I am, obviously, seeking interest in my RomPoet-based work in all its forms: as completions/remixes of Coleridge both on paper, declaimed and as audio downloads. I am actively seeking a partner interested in making Christabel Released into a graphic novel/anime/manga/film
Current work includes collaborating with a technology partner to look deeply into AI an Poetry (Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival/Brigstow Institute of University of Bristol). A fascinating development of my existing digitally-based work – AI RomPoets???
Links
ralphhoyte.org
satsymph.co.uk
Christabel Released (as POD, eBook and audio);
The Quantock Poetry Trail – RomPoet-inspired en plein air wanderings with 11 fellow poets
to create a series of 7 gps-triggered located poemscapes across the Quantocks and out to
Watchet, accessed thru’ the smartphone. Curated by Ralph Hoyte. Supported by the
Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme. Made possible by Heritage Fund.
The Ballad of Johny Walford – short film as part of Romancing the Gibbet with the University
of the West of England Regional History Centre (Wordsworth had a go at tackling this
infamous 18thc murder case when at Alfoxton)
Join us next time when we will feature the poetry of Clay F. Johnson! Hope to see you there!