Tuesday, February 23, 2016

grammaticality - Grammar and rearranging hyperbaton in 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'?


https://english.stackexchange.com/a/184742/50720 exemplifies with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:




The rock shone bright, the kirk no less,
 [1.] That stands above the rock:
The moonlight steeped in silentness
 [2.] The steady weathercock.


And the bay was white with silent light,
 [3.] Till rising from the same,
Full many shapes, that shadows were,
 In crimson colours came.



1. What does That refer to?



2. Is The steady weathercock supposed also to be 'steeped in silentness'? I recognise this as poetry, but what's the phenomenon here called? Why's there no conjunction linking The steady weathercock?


3. How do you determine/deduce the correct (re)order of words in the 3 lines after [3.]?



Answer



That = kirk = church.


Moonlight = subject
steeped = transitive verb
the steady weathercock = direct object of steeped (steady because windless or no changing winds)

The bay was white with silent light, till full many shapes, that were shadows, came rising in crimson colors from the same (i.e. from the bay that was white with silent light).


Compare came running, came galloping, came hopping, came sledding...



Full is not an adjective but an adverb (see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/full) that modifies many. Very many shapes.


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