The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner: Analysis of the seventh part

In the extract of the seventh part the mariner is going to leave the wedding-guest. The sailor says his last words about God’s love to all his creature: man, bird and beast. After that he disappears.

The extract is composed by four quatrains and each of them has a role in the economy of the text : in the first the mariner greets the guest, in the second he says his last word, in the third the mariner leave the guest alone and then the fourth presents the reaction of the wedding-guest after the experience he had lived.

Because of the musicality of the ballad Coleridge uses lots of sound devices: the repetition of “farewell”, the alternative rhyme ABAB, the strong position of some words in the verses “ best”, “well”, the alliterations sound like “b” in “both, bird, beast” or “m” in “man, morrow, morn” or  “r” in “mariner and bright”. Also punctuation has an important role in the text; for example the exclamation mark in the first verse underlines the happiness of the mariner who was able to shed his message.

Also in this last part of the poem Coleridge uses words witch belong to the semantic field of Christianity : prayeth, loveth, best, great, dear.