The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel T. Coleridge

1. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel T. Coleridge By Denitura M. and Sarah Likens February 27, 2012

2. Literal Sense of the Poem The story of a mariner who is on a long voyage and runs into three men who are en route to a wedding. He proceeds to tell him a story about the albatross that he killed and that he must continue to tell the story throughout eternity. Though the three men find this amusing at first, they note that the mariner’s fellow sailors are dying, and that he has managed to outlive the young. This offers some credibility to the notion that he must tell the story of his sin throughout eternity.

3. The Mariner comes across three men who are suppose to attend an wedding and he takes one away from the group. The wedding guest is intrigued by the Mariner’s eye and is constrained to hear his tale. The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with good wind and weather until it reached the line. The guest hear the bridal music, but the mariner continues his tale. The ship was caught in a storm as they headed toward the South Pole. Summary of the poem

4. Summary of the poem Cont.… No living thing could be seen, but eerie sounds could be heard. Until the sea-bird called the Albatross cam through the fog and was accepted with joy and hospitality. The bird followed the ship and helped it return northward through the fog and floating ice. Due to the Mariner’s inhospitality he killed the Albatross.

5. Language Some of the language is archaic, or old fashioned: ‘self-same’, ‘be mocked’. ‘The’ is often used instead of ‘s’ at the end of verbs e.g. ‘prayeth’. Coleridge’s notes summarizing the story along side the text contain the most difficult use of language and are best ignored: e.g. ‘he yearend towards the journeying moon’. Most of the mariner’s words are simple and contain one syllable, suitable for an uneducated sailor to use for his story. The purpose of Coleridge’s commentary may have been to explain the mariner’s tale to educated people! The language of the poem

6. Vivid expressions Rhyme The second and fourth line of each four-line stanza rhyme, providing a song like rhythm; e.g. ‘hand’ and ‘sand’ in the first stanza. But some stanzas have five lines. In these stanzas the second line rhymes with the fifth, the third line rhymes with the fourth. Some stanzas contain six lines. In these stanzas the second, fourth and sixth lines rhyme. Repetition of words like ‘alone’, ‘rotting’, ‘seven’ etc add to the musical effect and create internal rhyme and cross rhyme, respectively. A good example of internal rhyme is: ‘For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky’. This is a good example of Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound].

7. Rhyme and Rime: identity of the terminal sounds in lines of verse or in words. • Word Origin & History: Hoarfrost used mainly in Scottish and Northern English or England literary used in late 1800s Etymology

8. Tone and Mood The poet displays and attitude of the natural world and love. The Albatross changed the Mariners view of the world. There is a tone of dread and fear for much of the poem. It changes to happy and full of praise when the Mariner expresses his delight at the water snakes.

9. The poem is kind of grotesque because it was strange for the Albatross to come out and save the crew but then the Mariner goes and kills it for no reason. The way the poem goes on is very bizarre because the Mariner learns a life lesson after doing something very wrong. Emotions

10. Irony An example of irony in the poem is when the poet was saying that there was water everywhere but no water to drink. It is ironic because it is saying there is plenty of water for the men but yet they cant drink it.

11. The poem shocked me because I did not expect the Mariner to kill the Albatross for no reason. It was good that the Mariner learned a life lesson from his actions and it turned his life around. The poet intended for us to feel bad for the situation and guilty until things changed for the better. Emotions and Mood that evoked you

12. Rhetorical situation The Mariner is speaking to the Wedding guest on the wedding day to tell him about his sin that he did. There is really no relationship there between the reader and the speaker. The reader is not being directly spoken to because the speaker, the Mariner, is speaking to the wedding guest throughout the poem. We can overhear what the speaker is saying but the speaker is not speaking to us.

13. . “It cracked and growled, and roared, and howled, like noises in a swound!” “The Wedding-Guest stood still, and listens like a three years’ child.” “And ice, mast-high, came floating by, as green as emerald” “Thorough the fog it came; As it had been a Christian soul.” “With sloping masts and dipping prow, as who pursued with yell and blow” “The bride hath paced into the hall, red as a rose is she;” Figurative Language

14. Figurative Language cont.… “ a spring of love gushed from my heart” The storm coming after the ship metaphorically represents a predator; the storm, on the hunt for its prey; the ship. The moon is portrayed as a woman, the sun takes on human qualities. The Albatross like a Christian Soul. Idiom: the albatross around the neck of the Mariner. There were not many examples of oxymoron's, hyperboles, or puns.

15. When reading this poem, I can see the crew on their ship with the storm going on around them and they are panicking. It is easy to interpret how the ice around them in the Arctic is surrounding them and how cold it really does feel. The killing of the Albatross is easy to visualize and how the crew responds to it. imagery

16. Five senses In my imagination, I can hear the ice near Antarctica cracking very loudly. The moon shines through the fog of Antarctica with a white light. The ice of Antarctica is compared to the green of an emerald. In this poem, the ocean is green.

17. The Albatross symbolizes Christ in this poem because we sin and do things to upset Christ but he still comes through for us and saves our lives. The poet wants us to realize that saying our prayers can be very beneficial and get us through life without hard times. Symbolism

18. Rhyme/Rhyme Pattern Rhyme The second and fourth line of each four-line stanza rhyme, providing a song like rhythm; e.g. ‘hand’ and ‘sand’ in the first stanza. But some stanzas have five lines. In these stanzas the second line rhymes with the fifth, the third line rhymes with the fourth. Some stanzas contain six lines. In these stanzas the second, fourth and sixth lines rhyme. Repetition of words like ‘alone’, ‘rotting’, ‘seven’ etc add to the musical effect and create internal rhyme and cross rhyme, respectively. A good example of internal rhyme is: ‘For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky’. This is a good example of Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound].

19. Repetition Words are repeated for effect e.g. alone, eye, shadow, curse. Repetition

20. Alliteration Alliteration ‘And they all dead did lie’: the repeating ‘d’ consonant emphasises the horror of the corpses. The ‘w’ in ‘wicked whisper’ deepens the feeling of evil at this point’

21. Assonance There is a lot of assonance. The best example is the repeating ‘a’ vowel sound in ‘Alone, alone, all, all alone’. This deepens the lonely feeling. Assonance

22. onomatopoeic Metaphor ‘A spring of love gushed from my heart ‘: Coleridge uses an image of a spring to show the mariner’s sudden emotion of love for the colour of the water-snakes’ scales [‘attire’—another metaphor] Personification The moon is portrayed as a mocking woman: ‘Her beams bemocked’. In normal English, it would state that the light of the moon shone a white light on the sea and gave a false impression that its surface was white.

23. Metonymy Tongue, representing speech, stands for a human being or poet. • Contrast The sea burning red around the ship is contrasted to the surrounding shiny sea with the white moonshine reflecting off it. • Paradox [apparent contradiction] The sea burns red. How can seawater burn? Rotting or decay appears to take place but nothing fades or disappears. Cacophony/euphony

24. Structure of the poem Form As the song is a story told in a series of stanzas with a rhyming pattern, it is a ballad. The basic stanza has four lines. But some stanzas have five lines. Some stanzas are of six lines. In some versions of the poem the second stanza has eight lines. Sometimes the final two stanzas, of six lines and four lines, are printed as one ten-line stanza.

25. Works Cited • http://www.skoool.ie/skoool/examcentre_sc.asp?id=3035 • http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rime • http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/646/ • http://www.bartleby.com/101/549.html