the Ancient mariner by : Samuel T. Coleridge

1. the Ancient mariner by: Samuel T. Coleridge Ashley Busby and Kelly Contrael

2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772-1834) • born in Ottery St Mary, Devonshire • Suffering from neuralgic and rheumatic pains, Coleridge had become addicted to opium. • Coleridge's collection Poems On Various Subjects was published in 1796 SparkNotes LLC. "SparkNotes: Coleridge’s Poetry: Analysis." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. 2011. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. <http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/coleridge/analysis.html>.

3. Part I It is an ancient Mariner,And he stoppeth one of three.`By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,And I am next of kin;The guests are met, the feast is set:Mayst hear the merry din.'He holds him with his skinny hand,"There was a ship," quoth he.`Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!'Eftsoons his hand dropped he.He holds him with his glittering eye - The Wedding-Guest stood still,And listens like a three years' child:The Mariner hath his will.The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:He cannot choose but hear;And thus spake on that ancient man,The bright-eyed Mariner. "The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,Merrily did we dropBelow the kirk, below the hill,Below the lighthouse top.The sun came up upon the left,Out of the sea came he!And he shone bright, and on the rightWent down into the sea.Higher and higher every day,Till over the mast at noon -"The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,For he heard the loud bassoon.The bride hath paced into the hall,Red as a rose is she;Nodding their heads before her goesThe merry minstrelsy.The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,Yet he cannot choose but hear;And thus spake on that ancient man,The bright-eyed Mariner.

4. "And now the storm-blast came, and heWas tyrannous and strong:He struck with his o'ertaking wings,And chased us south along.With sloping masts and dipping prow,As who pursued with yell and blowStill treads the shadow of his foe,And foward bends his head,The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,And southward aye we fled.And now there came both mist and snow,And it grew wondrous cold:And ice, mast-high, came floating by,As green as emerald.And through the drifts the snowy cliftsDid send a dismal sheen:Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken - The ice was all between.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! At length did cross an Albatross,Thorough the fog it came;As it had been a Christian soul,We hailed it in God's name.It ate the food it ne'er had eat,And round and round it flew.The ice did split with a thunder-fit;The helmsman steered us through!And a good south wind sprung up behind;The Albatross did follow,And every day, for food or play,Came to the mariner's hollo!In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,It perched for vespers nine;Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,Glimmered the white moonshine."`God save thee, ancient Mariner,From the fiends that plague thee thus! - Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbowI shot the Albatross."

5. Paraphrase • Ancient mariner stops three men on there way to a wedding . The Mariner’s eyes gray glisten as he’s wishing to tell them a terrifying tell. The men explain they are here for the wedding and one of the men is a groomsmen and is related to the bride. They tell the Sailor they wish not to be bothered. His glistening eye hypnotizes them like three year olds with a toy. They sat there on a stone eagerly ready to hear the story of the old sailor. The mariner begins to tell the story “ship sailed southward on the Atlantic Ocean with a fair wind. The sun rose from the sea, crossed the sky, and sank in the west in its daily ritual as all went well while the ship sailed onward day after day ” Even though the wedding guest hears music from the nearby wedding celebration, he keeps his attention riveted on the old mariner and his tale. .......Alas, a great storm came, the mariner says, driving the ship farther south as it passed through mist and snow to a land of ice, Antarctica.

6. Paraphrase • Everywhere the crewmen looked they saw ice. Then, out of the fog, a great sea 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 good omen. It came to the ship every day, answering the mariner's “hollo!” (line 74). It played, It ate some 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 rest of the crew condemned his cruel act, saying he had “killed the bird / That made the breeze to blow.” However, 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 so, the crew became partners in his crime.

7. Paraphrase • ...But not long afterward, the sails fell as the air grew still. Day after day, under a boiling sun, the ship hardly moved. It was “As idle as a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean” And the men thirsted—in the middle of an ocean with water everywhere. They saw slimy creatures crawling on the sea, and at night they beheld a fire dancing on the ropes and chains that control the masts—an ill omen. (Sailors at sea often saw this phenomenon, known as St. Elmo’s fire. It is electricity discharged from pointed objects, such as masts, during storms. The phenomenon can also be seen on land on trees or towers that rise to a point. Today, it can also be seen in the air on wings and propellers of aircraft.) Blaming the mariner for their woes, the crewmen hung the dead albatross around his neck.

8. Paraphrase • 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 ship. The men were heartened. But what kind of ship moves without a wind? When the sun was setting, the vessel drew near and revealed itself as a ghostly “skeleton of a ship” (line 177) with only two crew members. One was a specter woman—“Life-in-Death” (line 193)—with red lips, yellow hair, and white skin. The other was her mate, Death. They rolled dice for the crewmen, and Death won everyone except the ancient mariner. He was the prize of Life-in-Death. .......All the crew—200 men—then dropped dead one by one, all except the mariner. Their souls flew by him, to heaven or hell, like arrows shot from a crossbow. The wedding guest interrupts the narrative at this point to express his fear of the mariner. After all, the old man could also be a departed soul, a ghost. But the mariner assures him that he is flesh and blood, then continues his tale. .......Now he was alone on the ocean with only slimy sea creatures to keep him company. He tried to pray but failed. The lifeless crewmen, meanwhile, looked up at him with

9. Paraphrase • a gaze, fixed by death. For seven days and nights, he endured their gaze. During this time, at night in the moonlight, he watched the water snakes “blue, glossy green, and velvet black”—swim and coil. Their beauty touched him, and he found himself blessing them. Worshiping them. He also found that he was able to pray; in short, he was beginning to regret shooting the albatross. Suddenly, the albatross fell from his neck and sank into the sea. And then the mariner slipped into a gentle sleep, 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 ship, the ship began to move—and the dead crewmen rose to man the ship—steering, tugging the ropes. The body of his brother’s son helped him pull on a rope, though he spoke no words.

10. Paraphrase • The wedding guest again interrupts to express his fear. But the mariner again calms him and resumes the story, as follows. At dawn, the ghostly crewmen let loose the ropes and made “sweet sounds” (mesmerizing sounds)mingled with the songs of birds. The ship sailed on. A spirit was moving the ship. Then the ship began to rock and lurched forward, causing the mariner to fall. When he came to, he heard two spirit voices. The one asked whether this was the man who shot the albatross. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Free Study Guides for Shakespeare and Other Authors. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. <http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/Rime.html>.

11. Diction • Swound: in a daze or animation. • The ice near Antarctica makes loud cracking noises that sound "like noises in a swound," that is, like the sounds a fainting person might hear. The word "like“. • Albatross: is a bird with the largest wingspans of any extant birds. And it is shown in the poem that it is good luck to the men. • Minstrelsy: was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, African Americans in blackface

12. Tone And Mood • The tone is meant to scare you and question the Sailor’s thoughts and story. • Mood- Sets a fearful worried mood makes the reader wonder and be fearful of the Sailor. A mood of Mystery and haunting. The poet makes you want to hate the Sailor, and be fearful of his story. • Dramatic Irony: Occurs when the audience knows more than the characters know. • We know that the Sailor is up to something from the haunting feeling he gives the three men. And by his hypnotizing eyes. • When the Mariner is describing the Albatross he is creating a mood.

13. Rhetorical situation • The speaker in the poem is two people the Narrator and the Sailor. • The poem is addressed to the three men and the audience. • The author is intending to communicate that the choice of our actions can lead to our downfall or death.

14. Figurative language • Simile: • listens like a three years' child • Red as a rose is she; • As green as emerald • Like noises in a swound! • Metaphor: “And now the storm-blast came, and he was tyrannous and strong: He struck with his o’ertaking wings, and chased us south along.” • Personification: • It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,…

15. Imagery • “Round and round it flew” – talking about the Albatross • “Glimmered the white moonshine” – the fog and smoke

16. Sound • The author gives the poem a creepy feel. Describing the sailor with hypnotizing glistening eyes and talking of the ire sea. The fog depth and describing the beginning of the end of the ship like the plague. Making you fearful of the sea.

17. Structure of the Poem • ballad in seven parts • narrative poem • Most of the stanzas in the poem have four lines; several have five or six. • four-line stanzas, the second and fourth lines rhyme. • In the five/six-line stanzas, the second or third line usually rhymes with the final line

18. Conclusion/Evaluation • The author made his point when the mariner killed the Albatross and then regretted it because he and the crew were stranded at sea. • The strongest: his feelings about killing the Albatross and how it hurt his crew. The weakest: how did the wedding pertain to the overall story. • Some of the Imagery was really affective and you could relate to it because everyone has done something at one point in their life that they have regretted.

19. Personal Reactions • What did we like or not like? • We liked how the author used the Albatross hunting of the food in the foggy night. The killing of the Albatross created a mood of sadness. • How did we feel after reading the poem? • Sad that he killed the Albatross. We felt the guilt of the Mariner for shooting the Albatross • Did it give us a new perspective, or was it trite and why? • It gives us a prospective how we can regret our decision and how god can forgive you for you sins. And that your actions can hurt others. • Did it relate to us, or was it so foreign an idea that it didn’t seem to pertain to us, and why? • We related to this poem because of our faith and how we feel about actions effecting others around us is something we face on an everyday basis.

20. Bibliography • Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Ed. Jalic INC. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. <http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/>. • Jalic INC. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. <http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/646/>. • Coleridge, Samuel T. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. <http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/646/>.