The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

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The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
An Ancient Mariner stops one (of three) on his
way to a wedding.
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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The wedding guest is mesmerized by the Mariners
  passion and begins listening to the story.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The Mariners Tale
• Their ship is driven south, by a storm, to a
  place of mist and snow.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was
  all around It cracked and growled, and roared
  and howled, Like noises in a swound!

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• Surrounded by ice.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• An albatross appears.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The albatross leads them out of the fog.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The Mariner shoots the albatross. At first the
  crew condemns him, but when a favorable breeze
  appears, they justify his action. This implicates
  them in his crime.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• Later, the wind stops and the ship is stranded
  for days, As idle as a painted ship upon a
  painted ocean.
• Water, water, every where, and all the boards
  did shrink Water, water, every where, nor any
  drop to drink.
• The crew blames the Mariner for no wind and hangs
  the albatross around his neck as punishment.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• A ghost ship approaches with a Specter-Woman and
  her Death-Mate as crew.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• Death and Life in Death roll dice for the
  lives of the ships crew.
• Life in Death wins.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, and
  cursed me with his eye
• With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, they dropped
  down one by one.
• The souls did from their bodies fly, - They fled
  to bliss or woe! And every soul, it passed me by,
  Like the whizz of my cross-bow!

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• Alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide
  wide sea! And never a saint took pity on my soul
  in agony.
• Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, and
  yet I could not die.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• Beyond the shadow of the ship, I watched the
  water-snakes
• O happy living things! No tongue their beauty
  might declare A spring of love gushed from my
  heart, and I blessed them unaware

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The curse is lifted and the albatross falls from
  his neck and sinks like lead into the sea.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The dead men awaken and the Mariner directs his
  ghostly crew North.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• As the Mariner returns to his home port, the
  spirits of his crew leave their bodies.
• He receives forgiveness (shrieve) from a hermit.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The Mariners ship sinks.

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The story concluded, the wedding guest leaves a
  sadder and a wiser man.
• The Mariner must tell his tale to warn others
  (redemption).

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Many critics see the Rime of the Ancient
Mariner as an allegory of some kind of fall,
like
Milton Parallels? (Paradise Lost)
Shelleys Interpretation? (Frankenstein)
STRUCTURE Sin, Punishment, Redemption
Of Coleridge -
opium?
Of Lucifer -
Of Adam Eve -
witchs oils, / burnt green, and blue and white
forbidden fruit
cast into hell
Cain?
slimy things Slimy sea
I shot the albatross
Phantasmagoria! A shifting series or succession
of things seen or imagined, as in a dream.
and I had done a hellish thing
the very deep did rot
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poetry gives most pleasure when only generally
and not perfectly understood" - Coleridge
Many critics maintain, as Christopher Lamb does,
that the Ancient Mariner is a work of complete
and pure imagination. As
No single interpretation seems to fit the entire
poem
In essence, it is a very imaginative and unusual
piece
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Purely inspirational?

• Dark gothic?
• cursed me with his eye
• Life-in-death
• spectre bark

Gustav Dorés Dark Etches
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Coleridge felt a deep sense of sin, for his opium
addiction.
The poem could be his way of fathoming his
feelings. The strange power of the Ancient
Mariner, as his difficult feelings. mingled
strangely with my fears I know that man must
hear me / To him my tale I teach
Hence, his sensitivity and saying that the poem
should not be analyzed? (poetry gives most
pleasure when only generally and not perfectly
understood)
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A Christian Parable About Respect?
Instead of the cross, the Albatross/ About my
neck was hung I had killed the bird / That made
the breeze to blow Hailed it in Gods
name Christian soul Crimson red like Gods own
head
Crew distanced from God
- Hid in mist
blessed them unawares
- dungeon-grate
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Science
Vs.
Spirituality
Some critics maintain that this ballad was an
exploration, by Coleridge, into the science vs.
spirituality debate
There are many mysterious fantastical images,
? the glittering eye with its strange
power
? the polar spirits and seraph band
He was at a point in his life where he was more
concerned with the rational than the empirical,
this poem was an exploration of the former.
The Latin preface says, Human cleverness has
always sought knowledge of these things, never
attained it.
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