vustudents
09-08-2011, 12:10 AM
“Water ballad” by Coleridge is both a simple love poem and allegory of human life. A young girl wishes to go across the stream to her father’s land. Ashe requests a boatman to row her over to the other side. During their short journey, while they are rowing over the brightly flowing stream, they fall in love. The boatman asks her if he could demand her hand when he has taken her to her father’s land. She replies that it is a difficult question. However, she says that she likes his company. They get married and the boat becomes their home. The maiden’s restless wandering is over. She has four her dream. Sitting side by side in their boat and singing together they row through rough and calm weather. Seen as an allegory, the poem takes on deeper meanings. The boat is the symbol of human life, the maiden and the boatman stand for mankind. Men and women need love to make life happy and successful. The stream becomes time.