THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a long ballad published in the Lyrical Ballads in 1798 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is organized into 7 parts and it is introduced by a short summary of the story.

I am going to analyse Part I and Part IV.

Part I is organized into 20 four-line stanzas (but you can notice also the presence of stanzas made up by five lines). You can see short summaries near the lines.

First of all the protagonist of the story is presented: it is an ancient mariner (an old person that seems a ghostly figure). The protagonist meets three persons that are going to a wedding-feast and detains one (it is called Wedding-Guest). The Wedding-Guest asks immediately the reason why the ancient mariner has stopped him and says to let him go. But the protagonist starts to tell a story "There was a ship". The Wedding-Guest does not want to listen to him because he wants to go to the wedding-feast. Immediately the Wedding-Guest feels spell-bound by the eye of the old man ("glittering eye") and he is constrained to hear his tale ("he cannot choose but hear"). The ancient mariner tells about a journey and underlines how the ship sailed southward with a good wind. But suddenly a storm brought the ship toward the South Pole: the landscape changed ("mist and snow", "it grew wondrous cold and ice", "nor shapes of men nor beasts", "the ice was all between"). The old man tells about the noise the ice made: "cracked, growled, roared and howled". Suddenly an Albatross got near the ship and was received with great joy and hospitality. The protagonist and the crew considered the Albatross a Christian soul and a good omen. So they fed him. The ice split up and a good wind started to blow northward. The Albatross followed the ship but the ancient mariner shot the pious bird with his crossbow.

Archaic language is used right from the title: the reader is projected in another world and his curiosity increases. The poet uses the language of fables. Any rational power is lost and you are kept by emotions. Rhythm is very quick. Coleridge uses a lot of technical devices: rhyme recalls something connected to poetry, the use of onomatopoeic language, the use of the language of sense impressions, the use of similes to help the reader in creating a mental picture.

The story develops in Part II and Part III: the ancient mariner has committed a terrible crime but the crew justified him because of the presence of a good wind northward. The ship reached the Line (that is a limit imposed by God to men) and becalmed under a burning sun (it recalls the idea of Hell). The shipmates tied the Albatross around the mariner's neck and died one by one. The old mariner was the only survivor because he has to pay for his crime.

Part IV starts with the Wedding-Guest that is afraid of the old man because he believes he is a spirit. The ancient mariner assures him saying that he is not dead. He explains his terrible punishment: he was completely alone on a wide sea. His condition of solitude is increased in comparison with the vastity of the ocean. He saw his dead shipmates and despised the other "slimy" creatures that lived. The ancient mariner tried to pray but he couldn't because his heart was dry as dust. The curse lived for him in the eye of the dead men ("The look with which they looked on me had never passed away", "more horrible than that is a curse in a dead man's eye"). He could not die and saw the Moon and the stars in the sky. By the light of the Moon he beholded God's creatures: water-snakes with their movements and colours. He was very happy for that vision and he blessed them in his heart. The curse began to break: he could pray and the Albatross fell off.

The reader is totally involved in the story: Coleridge juxtaposes ordinary experience and supernatural events. Nature is described with care so that the reader can create a mental picture of the scenes. Natural elements acquires also a deeper symbolic meaning: for example "burning" recalls Hell, the "sun" is a symbol of divine justice and the "calm" is a symbol of the desolation of the inner-self. The poet uses similes, personifications, repetitions, onomatopoeic words and appeals to senses. The language is simple but evocative. Themes are: death, love, revenge and the supernatural.

Coleridge starts from ordinary experience to create a timeless world full of images which hint at undiscovered truths. The reader is able to feel the same emotions of the ancient mariner although he is involved in supernatural adventures.