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"Rime of the
Ancient Mariner"
“The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in Prose
Summary
Three young men are walking together to a wedding, when one of
them is detained by a grizzled old sailor. The young Wedding-Guest
angrily demands that the Mariner let go of him, and the Mariner obeys.
But the young man is transfixed by the ancient Mariner's
"glittering eye" and can do nothing but sit on a stone and
listen to his strange tale.
The Mariner says that he sailed on a ship out of his native
harbor--"below the kirk, below the hill, / Below the lighthouse
top"--and into a sunny and cheerful sea. Hearing bassoon music
drifting from the direction of the wedding, the Wedding-Guest imagines
that the bride has entered the hall, but he is still helpless to tear
himself from the Mariner's story.
The Mariner recalls that the voyage quickly darkened, as a giant
storm rose up in the sea and chased the ship southward. Quickly, the
ship came to a frigid land "of mist and snow," where
"ice, mast-high, came floating by"; the ship was hemmed inside
this maze of ice. But then the sailors encountered an Albatross, a great
sea bird. As it flew around the ship, the ice cracked and split, and a
wind from the south propelled the ship out of the frigid regions, into a
foggy stretch of water. The Albatross followed behind it, a symbol of
good luck to the sailors. A pained look crosses the Mariner's face, and
the Wedding-Guest asks him, "Why look'st thou so?" The Mariner
confesses that he shot and killed the Albatross with his crossbow.
At first, the other sailors were furious with the Mariner for
having killed the bird that made the breezes blow. But when the fog
lifted soon afterward, the sailors decided that the bird had actually
brought not the breezes but the fog; they now congratulated the Mariner
on his deed. The wind pushed the ship into a silent sea where the
sailors were quickly stranded; the winds died down, and the ship was
"As idle as a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean." The ocean
thickened, and the men had no water to drink; as if the sea were
rotting, slimy creatures crawled out of it and walked across the
surface.
At night, the water burned green, blue, and white with death
fire. Some of the sailors dreamed that a spirit, nine fathoms deep,
followed them beneath the ship from the land of mist and snow. The
sailors blamed the Mariner for their plight and hung the corpse of the
Albatross around his neck like a cross.
A weary time passed; the sailors became so parched, their mouths
so dry, that they were unable to speak. But one day, gazing westward,
the Mariner saw a tiny speck on the horizon. It resolved into a ship,
moving toward them. Too dry-mouthed to speak out and inform the other
sailors, the Mariner bit down on his arm; sucking the blood, he was able
to moisten his tongue enough to cry out, "A sail! a sail!" The
sailors smiled, believing they were saved.
But as the ship neared, they saw that it was a ghostly, skeletal
hull of a ship and that its crew included two figures: Death and the
Night-mare Life-in-Death, who takes the form of a pale woman with golden
locks and red lips, and "thicks man's blood with cold." Death
and Life-in-Death began to throw dice, and the woman won, whereupon she
whistled three times, causing the sun to sink to the horizon, the stars
to instantly emerge. As the moon rose, chased by a single star, the
sailors dropped dead one by one--all except the Mariner, whom each
sailor cursed "with his eye" before dying. The souls of the
dead men leapt from their bodies and rushed by the Mariner.
The Wedding-Guest declares that he fears the Mariner, with his
glittering eye and his skinny hand. The Mariner reassures the
Wedding-Guest that there is no need for dread; he was not among the men
who died, and he is a living man, not a ghost.
Alone on the ship, surrounded by two hundred corpses, the Mariner
was surrounded by the slimy sea and the slimy creatures that crawled
across its surface. He tried to pray but was deterred by a "wicked
whisper" that made his heart "as dry as dust." He closed
his eyes, unable to bear the sight of the dead men, each of who glared
at him with the malice of their final curse. For seven days and seven
nights the Mariner endured the sight, and yet he was unable to die.
At last the moon rose, casting the great shadow of the ship
across the waters; where the ship's shadow touched the waters, they
burned red. The great water snakes moved through the silvery moonlight,
glittering; blue, green, and black, the snakes coiled and swam and
became beautiful in the Mariner's eyes. He blessed the beautiful
creatures in his heart; at that moment, he found himself able to pray,
and the corpse of the Albatross fell from his neck, sinking "like
lead into the sea."
The Mariner continues telling his story to the Wedding-Guest.
Free of the curse of the Albatross, the Mariner was able to sleep, and
as he did so, the rains came, drenching him. The moon broke through the
clouds, and a host of spirits entered the dead men's bodies, which began
to move about and perform their old sailors' tasks. The ship was
propelled forward as the Mariner joined in the work.
The Wedding-Guest declares again that he is afraid of the
Mariner, but the Mariner tells him that the men's bodies were inhabited
by blessed spirits, not cursed souls. At dawn, the bodies clustered
around the mast, and sweet sounds rose up from their mouths--the sounds
of the spirits leaving their bodies. The spirits flew around the ship,
singing. The ship continued to surge forward until
noon
, driven
by the spirit from the land of mist and snow, nine fathoms deep in the
sea.
At
noon
,
however, the ship stopped, then began to move backward and forward as if
it were trapped in a tug of war. Finally, it broke free, and the Mariner
fell to the deck with the jolt of sudden acceleration. He heard two
disembodied voices in the air; one asked if he was the man who had
killed the Albatross, and the other declared softly that he had done
penance for his crime and would do more penance before all was
rectified.
In dialogue, the two voices discussed the situation. The moon
overpowered the sea, they said, and enabled the ship to move; an angelic
power moved the ship northward at an astonishingly rapid pace. When the
Mariner awoke from his trance, he saw the dead men standing together,
looking at him. But a breeze rose up and propelled the ship back to its
native country, back to the Mariner's home; he recognized the kirk, the
hill, and the lighthouse. As they neared the bay, seraphs--figures made
of pure light--stepped out of the corpses of the sailors, which fell to
the deck.
Each seraph waved at the Mariner, who was powerfully moved. Soon,
he heard the sound of oars; the Pilot, the Pilot's son, and the holy
Hermit were rowing out toward him. The Mariner hoped that the Hermit
could shrive (absolve) him of his sin, washing the blood of the
Albatross off his soul.
The Hermit, a holy man who lived in the woods and loved to talk
to mariners from strange lands, had encouraged the Pilot and his son not
to be afraid and to row out to the ship. But as they reached the
Mariner's ship, it sank in a sudden whirlpool, leaving the Mariner
afloat and the Pilot's rowboat spinning in the wake. The Mariner was
loaded aboard the Pilot's ship, and the Pilot's boy, mad with terror,
laughed hysterically and declared that the devil knows how to row.
On land, the Mariner begged the Hermit to shrive him, and the
Hermit bade the Mariner tell his tale. Once it was told, the Mariner was
free from the agony of his guilt. However, the guilt returned over time
and persisted until the Mariner traveled to a new place and told his
tale again. The moment he comes upon the man to whom he is destined to
tell his tale, he knows it, and he has no choice but to relate the story
then and there to his appointed audience; the Wedding-Guest is one such
person.
The church doors burst open, and the wedding party streams
outside. The Mariner declares to the Wedding-Guest that he who loves all
God's creatures leads a happier, better life; he then takes his leave.
The Wedding-Guest walks away from the party, stunned, and awakes the
next morning "a sadder and a wiser man."
--adapted from Spark Notes.com
English Romanticism
n
Romantic writers saw themselves as
visionaries with the ability to look beyond the ordinary in life and
contemplate man's ultimate fate in an uncertain world.
n
William Blake, William Wordsworth, and
Percy Bysshe Shelley asserted their belief in the innate goodness of man
and his future promise.
n
Other writers of the period were less
optimistic. Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, for example, questioned the
likelihood of redemption through a spiritual union of the human
consciousness with the supernatural. They were uncertain if man's
knowledge and creativity would cause his salvation or his downfall
n
Romanticists also believed that retreats into nature provide the soul
with a refreshing, a renewal. Nature
also provides the mind with the peaceful environment in which to think
more clearly.
n
Dark
Romanticism
In works of dark Romanticism, the writers feature outcasts from society
like themselves such as Samuel
Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, and Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein and
his creature.
n
Suffering
for offenses against God, man and Nature, the hero-villains wander the
earth, alone and misunderstood. Their personal torment in a vast
universe is emphasized by desolate settings of icebound seas, jagged
mountains and bottomless abysses: imagery that would inspire artistic,
literary, and musical compositions.
n
These
Romantic writers explored the mysterious, the monstrous, and the
supernatural, creating powerful and imaginative works of literature.
Study
Guide
1. What aspect of the mariner seems to cast a spell over the
wedding guest?
2. Why does the ship sail to "the land of ice and fearful
sounds"?
3. How does the coming of the albatross apparently affect the
ship's course?
4. Why do the mariner's shipmates first condemn his killing of
the albatross, then approve of it?
5. Later, why do they hang it on his neck?
6. As the albatross begins to be avenged, what effects are
seen in the natural world?
7. What supernatural force is at work?
8. As a ship nears, how does the mariner manage to cry out?
What details reveal it as a ghost ship?
9. Describe the appearance of its crew and their effect on the
mariner and his companions.
10. At this point, why is the wedding gust suddenly fearful?
How does the mariner reassure him?
11. How long does the mariner suffer "Alone on a wide,
wide sea" and under whose curse?
12. What act finally enables the mariner to pray? Was it
a spontaneous or a premeditated decision?
13. How does nature reflect the change in the mariner?
14. With the crew dead, how is the ship manned? What
spiritual agencies are involved?
15. Now that he has dropped the guilty weight of the
albatross, is the mariner forgiven and released from suffering? Explain.
16. At what point in the journey is the curse dispelled?
17. What elements of the supernatural are described in this
part of the poem?
18. What finally happens to the ship, and how is the mariner
saved?
19. Why is the pilot's boy frightened?
20. What service does the hermit perform?
21. What is the mariner's final doom or sentence?
22. What strange power does he have?
23. How does the mariner's tale affect the wedding guest?
24. What is the theme(s) of this poem?
25. What might the albatross have symbolized in Coleridge's
own life?
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