The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Reading Guide
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
A Study Guide
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Study Guide Prepared past Michael J. Cummings ... � 2005
Revised in 2010 . �
....... The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a narrative poem in which a seaman tells another human being a strange and terrifying tale.
Date of Publication
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.......The poem was published in 1798 in Lyrical Ballads, then revised and published in 1817 in the version that is pop today. Coleridge received help from the poet William Wordsworth. The editors of Major British Writers, a literature album, explain Wordsworth'southward contribution:
- Originally, Coleridge and Wordsworth intended to write this poem in collaboration. Wordsworth�s manner proved unsuited for the purpose, yet, and after contributing half a dozen lines [Office II, Lines 13-xvi and Lines 226-227] and suggesting the shooting of the albatross and �the reanimation of the dead bodies to work the transport," Wordsworth withdrew, and Coleridge proceeded lonely.�Grand.B. Harrison, full general ed. Major British Writers. Shorter edition. New York: Harcourt, 1967, Page 592.
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.......When Coleridge wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, accounts of the daring sea voyages of the British explorer Captain James Cook (1728-1779) had caught the public'southward fancy. Melt had made three exploratory voyages in the Pacific between 1768 and 1779, traveling as far due north as the Bering Strait (between Alaska and Russia) and as far south as the water ice fields of Antarctica. 1 of his crewmen, astronomer William Wales, later taught mathematics to Coleridge at Christ'due south Hospital School in London after Coleridge enrolled upon the expiry of his father in 1781. Australian Bernard Smith maintains that Coleridge probable used a periodical kept by Wales as a source of information for The Rime of the Aboriginal Mariner, according to Bill Whelen, author of Captain Cook's Navigator and Coleridge'due south Poem: William Wales, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' (Dunedin, New Zealand: Academy of Otago Press, 2009).
.......Other sources used by Coleridge include superstitions and folk tales.
Setting
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.......The action takes place in the following locales several hundred years agone: (one) a street or byway in a locale with a hall in which a hymeneals reception is being held; (ii) a sailing ship with 201 crew members, including the ancient mariner; (3) the Atlantic Ocean; (four) the Southward Pole; (4) the Pacific Ocean; (v) the mariner�southward native country (undisclosed). The atmosphere is ghostly, preternatural, mysterious.
Characters
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Ancient Mariner: Old crewman who roams from country to country to tell a foreign tale.
Hymeneals Guest: Human being on the way to a wedding reception with ii other men. The mariner singles out the nuptials guest to hear his tale.
Two Hundred Crewmen: Ill-fated members of the ship conveying the mariner.
Pilot: Boatman who rescues the mariner. (A pilot is an official who guides ships into and out of a harbor.)
Pilot�s Boy: Pilot�southward banana.
Hermit: Holy man who absolves the mariner and hears his story.
Albatross: Large, web-footed sea bird with a hooked bill. Most species of albatrosses wander the southern seas, from tropical regions down to Antarctica, drinking sea water and feeding on squid, cuttlefish, and other pocket-sized sea creatures. Sometimes, they follow ships to feed on their garbage. Albatrosses accept an astonishing ability to glide in the wind, sometimes for hours, but have difficulty staying aloft without a wind. In the latter example, they sit on the water to balance or sleep. When it is time to brood, they go aground. An onetime superstition says killing an albatross brings bad luck, although sailors have been known to impale and consume them. The Rime of the Aboriginal Mariner has helped brand this superstition common noesis throughout the world amidst landlubbers as well as sailors. In modern parlance, a person or an event that brings bad luck is oftentimes referred to as an boundness.
Narration: Poem as a Frame Tale
....... A narrator begins the poem past telling the reader virtually an aboriginal mariner who stops a human being on the street to recite a story. After getting the man�s attention, the mariner then tells his tale. Thus, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is like a framed painting. The frame represents one narrator telling about the mariner; the painting represents the mariner narrating his story. The mariner sometimes quotes some other person, such as the Pilot. Notwithstanding, the Pilot is not a narrator, since he is merely speaking dialogue and not telling a story.
Construction, Rhyme
....... Coleridge divides the poem into vii parts. Nigh of the stanzas in the poem have 4 lines; several have 5 or six lines. In the four-line stanzas, the 2nd and fourth lines commonly rhyme. In the 5- and six-line stanzas, the second or 3rd line usually rhymes with the terminal line.
Meter
The meter alternates between iambic tetrameter (with four feet per line) and iambic trimeter (with iii feet per line). Following is an case (the first four lines of Part II) of a stanza with this pattern:
.......1.................2...............3...............4. .
"The Sunday .. | .. now ROSE .. | .. up ON .. | .. the Right :............(tetrameter)
.....1..............2...............3
Out OF .. | .. the Body of water .. | .. came HE ,..................... .... ............ (trimeter)
......one..............2...............3...............4
Even so HID .. | .. in MIST , .. | .. and ON .. | .. the LEFT ...................(tetrameter)
.........1................2.............three
Went DOWN .. | .. in TO .. | .. the SEA .................... .... ........... (trimeter)
Summary of the Poem
By Michael J. Cummings ... � 2005
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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner begins with a one-paragraph summary chosen an "Statement." The verse form then begins.
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.......Iii men are on their way to a wedding reception when an erstwhile sailor stops ane of them to tell him a story. Then eager is the old boyfriend to tell his tale that he raises on manus to prevent the wedding invitee from moving on. The mariner then begins the story��There was a ship" (line 10)�merely is unable to continue because the wedding invitee angrily orders the mariner to cease blocking his style.
.......Just after the old homo lowers his mitt, the invitee cannot proceed on, for he is hypnotized by the mariner�southward �glittering eye" (line 3). Like a iii-twelvemonth-old child eager for a wonderful story, the guest sits on a rock and listens.
.......The mariner says the ship sailed southward on the Atlantic Ocean with a off-white wind. The sunday rose from the sea, crossed the sky, and sank in the west in its daily ritual equally all went well while the ship sailed onward day after twenty-four hour period. Fifty-fifty though the hymeneals guest hears music from the nearby wedding celebration, he keeps his attention riveted on the old mariner and his tale.
.......Alas, a great tempest came, the mariner says, driving the ship further southward as information technology passed through mist and snowfall to a land of ice, Antarctica. Everywhere the crewmen looked they saw water ice. And so, out of the fog, a peachy ocean bird appeared�an albatross. And, wonder of wonders, the ice around the ship cracked, and the ship picked up a wind and sailed north. The albatross, therefore, was a expert omen. Information technology came to the send every day, answering the mariner'southward �hollo!" (line 74).It played. It ate of the crewmen�s food. During the evening religious services, called vespers, it perched on a mast or a rope.
.......Then one day, the mariner shot the bird with his crossbow. The remainder of the coiffure condemned his barbarous act, saying he had �killed the bird / That made the breeze to blow." Nonetheless, when the fog disappeared and the sun shone gloriously, they approved the act, saying he �had kill'd the bird / That brought the fog and mist" (99-100).And then, the crew became partners in his crime.
.......But not long later, the sails cruel as the air grew still. Day subsequently day, under a humid sunday, the ship inappreciably moved. It was �Equally idle as a painted send / Upon a painted ocean" (lines 117-118). And the men thirsted�in the middle of an ocean with water everywhere. They saw slimy creatures crawling on the sea, and at nighttime they beheld a fire dancing on the ropes and chains that command the masts�an ill omen. (Sailors at sea often saw this phenomenon, known every bit St. Elmo�s burn down. Information technology is electricity discharged from pointed objects, such as masts, during storms. The phenomenon can as well be seen on land on trees or towers that ascension to a point. Today, it tin can likewise be seen in the air on wings and propellers of aircraft.) Blaming the mariner for their woes, the crewmen hung the dead boundness around his neck.
.......As each man weakened with thirst and fatigue, the mariner beheld a sign in the sky�a mere speck that grew into a mist and took shape upon its approach. It appeared to be a send. The men were heartened. Only what kind of ship moves without a air current? When the sun was setting, the vessel drew near and revealed itself as a ghostly �skeleton of a ship" (line 177) with merely two coiffure members. Ane was a specter woman��Life-in-Death" (line 193)�with red lips, yellow pilus, and white skin. The other was her mate, Decease. They rolled dice for the crewmen, and Death won everyone except the ancient mariner. He was the prize of Life-in-Decease. .......All the crew�200 men�then dropped dead one past 1, all except the mariner. Their souls flew by him, to sky or hell, like arrows shot from a crossbow. The wedding ceremony invitee interrupts the narrative at this point to express his fear of the mariner. Later all, the old man could also exist a departed soul, a ghost. But the mariner assures him that he is flesh and blood, so continues his tale.
.......At present he was alone on the ocean with merely slimy sea creatures to keep him company. He tried to pray just failed. The lifeless crewmen, meanwhile, looked up at him with a never-changing gaze, fixed past death. For seven days and nights, he endured their gaze. During this time, at night in the moonlight, he watched the water snakes��bluish, glossy green, and velvet blackness" (line 280)�swim and coil. Their sleek beauty touched him, and he found himself blessing them. He also found that he was able to pray; in short, he was beginning to regret shooting the boundness. Of a sudden, the albatross roughshod from his neck and sank into the sea. And so the mariner slipped into a gentle slumber, for which he thanked Mary, the holy Mother who is Queen of heaven. When he awakened, rain was falling and wind was roaring. Although the wind did not reach the transport, the ship began to movement�and the dead crewmen rose to human being the ship�steering, tugging the ropes. The body of his brother�s son helped him pull on a rope, though he spoke no words.
.......The wedding guest once more interrupts to express his fear. But the mariner again calms him and resumes the story, equally follows. At dawn, the ghostly crewmen let loose the ropes and fabricated �sweet sounds" (line 353) mingled with the songs of birds. Information technology was an angelic symphony. The ship sailed on. A spirit, information technology seemed, was moving the transport. And so the transport began to rock and bob�and suddenly lurched forward, causing the mariner to fall in a faint. When he came to, he heard two spirit voices. One asked whether this was the man who shot the albatross. The other, confirming that it was, said the mariner had washed penance for his wrongdoing but still had more penance to do.
.......The transport began to sail due north at such a great speed that the mariner went into a trance. When the mariner woke upwardly, the ship was sailing gently onward. All the dead crewmen were standing together, staring at the mariner. A wind�like a gale across a meadow in the bound�began to blow, tousling the mariner�southward hair and cooling his cheek. The ship picked up speed and soon the mariner saw a lighthouse, a hill, and a church. It was his native land at long last.
.......The water in the harbor bay was calm, reflecting the light of the moon. On the ship, the corpses were no longer continuing merely lying �lifeless and flat" (line 489). Over each body was a seraph (an angel), giving off a heavenly low-cal that could be seen on the shore. Presently a gunkhole came rowing along conveying a Pilot, the Pilot�s boy, and a Hermit singing hymns. The Hermit, who lived in woods near the sea and knelt on moss to pray, loved to talk with sailors from afar. When the boat drew close, the mariner heard them say that the send looked strange. �It hath a fiendish await" (line 539), the Pilot said. Suddenly, the send sank, rumbling down and leaving the mariner floating helplessly. But in a moment he was in the Pilot�s boat, which whirled round and round. When seeing the mariner�s face, the Airplane pilot fell down in a fit and the Hermit prayed. The mariner took up oars and began rowing. At that, the boy laughed, observing that �the Devil knows how to row" (line 570).
.......After the gunkhole reached state, the mariner begged the Hermit to hear his confession and atone him of his sins. �What manner of man art thou?" (line 578) the Hermit said. And the mariner told him his tale. Since that the time, the mariner says, he has felt a compulsion to travel from land to state. Information technology is his penance. Whenever he remembers his feel at sea�the terror of it all�he must terminate someone to tell him his story in social club to relieve his agony. He knows at a mere glance which man he must single out to mind to the tale.
.......The wedding celebration continues while the mariner hears a vesper bong calling him to prayer. It is far sweeter to him to pray to God, he says, than it would be to relish the pleasure of a wedding celebration. The mariner notes that a man prays all-time �who loveth best / All things both slap-up and small" (lines 615-616)�that is, who loves all of the things that God created.
.......The mariner then walks on. And so does the wedding invitee, equally if stunned. Merely he is a �sadder and wiser man."
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Sin and Redemption
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.......Human is a sinful beast, merely redemption awaits him if he repents his wrongdoing and performs penance. This theme manifests itself as follows: Later the ancient mariner commits a sin by killing the albatross, guilt hounds him in the form of strange natural and supernatural phenomena. During one terrifying experience, he has a change of heart and repents his wrongdoing. After confessing to the Hermit, he carries out a penance, which is to travel the earth to tell his tale to strangers.
Respect for Nature
.......Human beings should respect all of God�south creation and all of His creatures, including the boundness and even bounding main snakes. In doing and so, people indicate their respect for the Creator Himself. In his departing words to the wedding invitee, the narrator says,
Farewell, farewell! but this I tellTerror
To thee, chiliad Nuptials-Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both human and bird and beast. (lines 611-614)
....... The mariner undergoes terrifying experiences as he confronts supernatural wonders, in particular the female figure known as Life-in-Expiry. When the mariner sees her rolling die with expiry, he says,
We listen'd and look'd sideways up!The mariner even frightens the wedding guest when he tells him that all the crewmen roughshod dead one by one. The wedding ceremony guest says,
Fear at my heart, every bit at a loving cup,
My life-claret seem'd to sip! (lines 204-206)
"I fear thee, ancient Mariner!Coleridge obviously makes the point that across the boundaries of the known earth are many strange and fearful sights that explorers volition encounter.
I fright thy skinny hand!
And thou art long, and lank, and brownish,
As is the ribbed bounding main-sand. (lines 225-228)
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The Ancient Mariner equally Adam: Adam committed the original sin that brought woe upon mankind. The original sin in this context is the killing of the boundness. The crewmen are inheritors of the mariner�s original sin, just as Christians are inheritors of Adam�s original sin. As the mariner says, "And I had done an hellish matter, And it would piece of work 'em woe."
The Ancient Mariner every bit Christian Sinner: When the ancient mariner kills the albatross (described in the poem as a holy matter �hailed in God�s proper name"), he is similar the Christian who commits sins for which Christ died on the cross.
Ghost Ship as Wages of Sin: The ghostly skeleton send carries Death and Life-in-Death. Decease, of grade, is a consequence of original sin. Life-in-Death is the loneliness, the separation from God, that a sinner encounters before dying.
Airplane pilot: The boat Pilot rescues the mariner after the transport sinks, representing the saving grace of a merciful God.
Hermit: The Hermit represents redemption. He hears the mariner'south confession and pronounces a penance, requiring the mariner to tell his tale the world over to warn others of the consequences of sin.
Wedding Commemoration: Everyday life that continues merrily without its participants' full cognition and respect of the higher rules of the universe. As part of his penance, the mariner educates i of the wedding guests about the importance of abiding by the laws of God. The scene of a wedding ceremony commemoration is, of course, an splendid place for the mariner to tell his story. After all, a matrimony is a beginning, and new life will come from it. Will the newlyweds and their children abide by God'due south laws? Or volition they thoughtlessly shoot albatrosses? Possibly the wedding invitee who walks on at the stop of the poem volition pass on his new insights to the bride, the groom, and others at the wedding banquet.
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....... The climax of the poem occurs when the mariner has a modify of heart and the albatross falls from his neck.
Internal Rhyme
Besides end rhyme, Coleridge also frequently uses internal rhyme. Following are examples.
The guests are met , the banquet is set (line 7)InversionThe ship collection fast , loud roared the blast (line 49)
And through the drifts the snowy clifts (line 54)
The ice did carve up with a thunder- fit (line 69)
In mist or cloud , on mast or shroud (line 75)
The fair breeze blew , the white foam flew (line 103)
....... For poetic effect, Coleridge inverts the word order from fourth dimension to fourth dimension, as the following lines demonstrate.
Instead of the cantankerous, the Albatross
About my neck was hung. (lines 141-142)
The normal word order would be "was hung virtually my neck."
Through utter drought all dumb nosotros stood! (line 159)
The normal word order would be "we stood all dumb."
The naked hulk alongside came (line 195)
The normal word order would exist "came alongside."
Enjambment
....... Coleridge occasionally uses enjambment, the practice of carrying the sense of one line of verse over to the next line without a pause. Here are examples:
And now the storm-smash came, and heFigures of Oral communication
Was tyrannous and strong (lines 41-42)We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot. (lines 137-138)Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung . (lines 141-142)'There passed a weary time. Each throat
Was parch'd , and glazed each eye. (lines 143-144)
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The verse form is rich in figures of speech. Hither are examples:
Alliteration
- B y thy long thou rey b eard and thou littering eye (line iii)
H e h olds h im with h is skinny h and (line 9)
The Wedding-Guest h ere b eat h is b reast,
For h e h eard the loud b assoon. (lines 31-32)
The m erry m instrelsy (line 36)
The f urrow f ollowed f ree (line 104)
The water ice was here, the water ice was in that location,Irony
The water ice was all effectually. (line 59-lx)With throats unslaked, with black lips baked (line 157)
Without a breeze, without a tide (line 169)
Her lips were red, her looks were costless,
Her locks were yellow every bit golden:
Her skin was as white as leprosy (lines 190-192)They groan'd, they stirr'd, they all uprose,
Water, water, every where,Metaphor
And all the boards did shrink ;
H2o, water, every where,
Nor any drib to drink. (lines 119-122)
Water is everywhere, but at that place is none to drinkable.
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,Onomatopoeia
And cursed me with his eye. (lines 215-216)
Comparison of the appearance of the eye to a expletiveThey coil'd and swam; and every track
Was a wink of golden fire. (lines 281-282)
Comparison of the wake left by the bounding main snakes to burn down
Information technology scissure'd and growl'd , and roar'd and howl'd (line 61)Personification
The Sun came up upon the left,Simile
Out of the sea came he !
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the bounding main. (lines 25-28)
Comparison of the sun to a person
[E]very soul, it passed me by,Synecdoche
Similar the whizz of my crossbow! (lines 223-224)
Comparison of the passing of a soul to the audio of a shot arrow[T]he sky and the ocean, and the sea and the heaven
Lay similar a load on my weary eye (lines 251-252)
Comparing of the sky and ocean to a weight on the eyeHer beams bemocked the sultry primary,
Like April hoar-frost spread (lines 268-269)
Comparison of reflected sunbeams to frostThe bride hath paced into the hall,.................
Reddish every bit a rose is she (lines 33-34)
Comparing of the bride to a roseThe water, similar a witch's oils,
Burnt light-green, and blueish and white. (lines 129-130)
Comparison of water to witch's oilsDay after day, day after solar day,
We stuck, nor breath nor move;
Equally idle as a painted transport
Upon a painted ocean. (lines 115-118)
Comparison of the motionless ship and ocean to paintings
The western moving ridge was all a-flame (line 171)
Wave refers to the bounding main.
.. Vocabulary Words From the Poem
betwixt (line 176): Between.
charnel-dungeon (line 436): A charnel is a place that contains corpses; a dungeon is a night prison beneath a medieval castle. Hence, a charnel-dungeon is an hugger-mugger place for the dead.
chuse (line 18): Choose.
clifts (line 55): Cliffs.
clomb (line 210): Climbed.
corse (line 349, 489, 492): Corpse; dead body.
death-fires (line 128): St. Elmo�s fire, which is electricity discharged from pointed objects, such equally masts, during storms. The phenomenon tin can also exist seen on land on copse or towers that rising to a point. Today, it tin can too be seen in the air on wings and propellers of aircraft.
eftsoons (line 12): Immediately; at present; at once.
fathom (line 133): Depth measurement equaling vi feet (i.8288 meters).
gossameres (line 184): Cobwebs.
gramercy (line 164): Expression of thanks or surprise
helmsman (line 336): Crewman who steers a ship.
Jargoning (line 363): Chattering; singing.
ken (line 57): Know.
kirk (line 467): Church.
line (Coleridge's comments at line 25): Equator, the imaginary circle effectually the earth that divides the Northern and Southern Hemispheres
main (line 268): Bounding main.
mast (line thirty):Tall construction ascent from a ship to support sails, ropes, booms, etc.
minstrelsy (line 36): Grouping of musicians.
under (line 212): Bottom.
Airplane pilot (line 502): Boatman who guides ships into and out of harbors.
rood (line 490): Old English word for cantankerous, referring to the cantankerous on which Christ was crucified; crucifix at the entrance of a chancel, the space around an altar that is reserved for clergymen or choir members.
seraph (line 491): Member of the highest-ranking order of angels, the Seraphim.
shrieve (line 513): Shrive, which means to hear the confession of a sinner.
shroud (line 75): Ropes or wires continued to a mast on both sides to keep in from swaying sideways
skiff (line 524): Small boat propelled with oars.
swound (line 62): Swoon; fainting spell.
tack'd (tacked, line 156): Changed course.
thorough (line 64): Through.
twain (line 196): Ii.
tod (line 536): Bush of ivy or some other plant
wherefore (line 4): why.
wist (line 152): Past tense of wit, meaning know; hence, wist means knew.
Written report Questions and Essay Topics
- The poem does non say why the mariner shot the albatross. In your opinion, what was his motive? Explain your answer.
- Why did the crewmen hang the boundness effectually the mariner's cervix?
- Write a short poem that contains end rhyme and internal rhyme. The topic is open.
- The mariner told his tale to what other person as well the wedding guest?
- What would Coleridge say virtually modern man's treatment of nature and its creatures? Give your reply in an essay supported by quotations from the poem, likewise every bit by library and Internet research.
Source: https://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/Rime.html
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