The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a lyrical ballad written by Coleridge

with some help from the poet William Wordsworth and it consists of seven
acts preceded by one paragraph titled the Argument. In this poem, a sailor
tells a complete stranger a ghastly tale about events that happened to him in
one of his voyages. According to the author Sheila Wild it is possible that this
plot may have been partially inspired by the explorations of Captain James
Cook.

In this ballad, an old mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding
reception to tell him a tale. Although initially the Wedding Guest is reluctant to
stay, then he becomes mesmerized by the mariners glittering eye and
listens attentively to the whole story. At this point we may wonder if the fact
that the interlocutor is attending a wedding might be particularly significant.
One of the possible reasons may be that the author aims to highlight the
beginning of a new cycle as the current point in the Ancient Mariners life. His
retelling this story seems to be something the mariner is condemned to do
again and again. By the end of the poem the mariner confirms it when he says:
Since then, at an uncertain hour,
That agony returns:
And till my ghastly tale is told,
This heart within me burns.

The tale starts the day the mariners ship sets sail from an unknown port
with a crew of two hundred men. At first they enjoy good weather and the sun
in the sky bathes them with warmth. In the mariners words:

The Sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he!
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon'

At that moment the sound of a bassoon interrupts his tale and the wedding
celebration intrudes. The bride enters the hall and Red as a rose is she. It
does not seem to be accidental that the colour red is mentioned at this precise
moment. If we link it to the ancient rhyme red sky at morning, sailors take
warning, the colour hints at the impending storm-blast as well as the
upcoming problems in the mariners future.

This tyrannous and strong storm pushes them to the south and the
weather turns terrible cold and misty. According to the mariners words, this
remote place is devoid of any living beings:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we kenThe ice was all between.

And it is definitely harsh and inhospitable too:

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!
In this stanza Coleridge refers to the icy regions of the Antarctic. According to
his friend Wordsworth, his inspiration comes from Captain G Shelvockes 1726
book, A Voyage Around the World by Way of the Great South Sea. Besides,
Coleridges effective use of auditory imagery and personification of the ice
provides an ambiance of gloom and despair.

The tale continues with the unexpected appearance of an albatross out

of the fog that surrounds the ship. The mariner lets us see his disregard for the
bird, which might possibly extend to all living beings, when he says:

As if it had been a Christian soul,

We hailed it in God's name.

In coincidence with the appearance of the bird, the ice keeping the ship stuck,
breaks and a south wind drives them from behind. Although the albatross is
harmless and friendly, the ancient Mariner kills it with his crossbow for no
discernible reason.

Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,

That bring the fog and mist

With these words, the mariner tells us that the crew approves of his deed
because they hold the albatross responsible for the bad weather. But later on,
after several hot sunny days with no wind, the crew swiftly turns against the
mariner, lying the blame at his feet. The following lines make the crews
accusations clear:

Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,

That made the breeze to blow!

And to the mens utter despair, the sun continues to shine mercilessly and not
a drop of rain falls. They become desperately thirsty and they even dream of a
spirit plaguing them. It is not without irony that the mariner claims:

Water, water, everywhere

Not any drop to drink

In a fit of rage and as a mark of his guilt, the sailors hang the dead bird
around his neck. The unjustified death of the albatross at the hands of the
mariner becomes the turning point of his life as well as the cornerstone of the
whole poem.

At this point, we can already surmise that there is a certain relation

between the poem and Christian religion and later on, the biblical symbolism
becomes clearer. Yet, we can make an educated guess about the divine nature
of the albatross because of the reference to the cross, both in the way it is
killed- with a crossbow- and how it hangs around the mariners neck :

Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was hung.

This is the moment of the tale, when things become even more
bizarre. Another ship appears sailing without wind, and there is only a man and
a woman in it, Death and Life-in-Death. They play a game of dice, which Life-inDeath wins and the ship disappears. As soon as they are gone, night comes
and the two hundred sailors start dropping dead, as if their souls fly out of their
bodies. The only one who remains standing is the ancient mariner. Because of
the way he describes their passing away we know that, to a certain extent, this
is a consequence of the killing of the albatross. When the mariner describes
their passing away he says:

And every soul, it passed me by,

Like the whizz of my cross-bow!

The reference to the cross-bow links this event directly to the death of the
albatross. And by now, the ancient mariner starts to feel guilty and to sense the
enormity of his sin. Nevertheless, he is not able to comprehend it wholly. He
mourns deeply the death of the many men, so beautiful! but continues
disregarding callously the life of the thousand slimy things that crawl and coil
in the sea.
So, here is the Ancient Mariner, alone in a ship which does not move,
surrounded by corpses which do not rot, and flanked by slimy creatures which
coil and crawl in the sea. After seven days and nights of unbearable pain, his
only desire is to die. But he cannot as Life-in-Death owns his soul and his curse
is to live in penance. In a desperate attempt to lift the curse, the mariner tries
to pray but he realizes that he cannot do it either. Then, one night, as he is
observing the creatures in the sea, he is unexpectedly surprised by their
beauty and their happiness. He exclaims:
O happy living things! No tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware.

With this change of heart he takes the first step to redemption. He can
see the beauty in these creatures, he can feel love for them and he can respect
them. He recognizes them as Gods creation. As we read in the Bible,
everything belongs to God, How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you
made them all; the earth is full of your creatures (Psalm 104:24). And with this
new found love in his heart, he is finally able to pray. Immediately the albatross
falls from his neck and sinks into the sea.

Without the heavy burden upon his shoulders, he falls asleep and rests.
When he wakes up, rain is falling and he drinks his fill. Incredibly, the boat
moves forward although never a breeze up-blew. The dead sailors stand up
and go about their tasks until dawn. When the sun is up in the sky again, these
lifeless sailors drop their arms and sing sweet melodies that darted to the
Sun. All throughout the poem, the sun is an ever-present being just as the allseeing God of the Christians. We read in the Bible, "For He looks to the ends of
the earth And sees everything under the heavens (Job, 24)

Suddenly, the ship makes an abrupt movement and the mariner faints.
As he is lying on the deck, he listens to two voices discussing his fate. One of
the voices asks

'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the man?

By him who died on cross,
With his cruel bow he laid full low
The harmless Albatross.
This stanza is the confirmation of the association between the Albatross and
Jesus Christ, who is referred to as the one who died on cross. And the next one
is the confirmation that for his sin the mariners penance is never ending:

Quoth he, The man hath penance done,

And penance more will do.

After a swift journey, the ship gets to port and a boat comes to the
Mariners rescue. A pilot, his assistant and a Hermit are on it. Suddenly, the
ship sinks and the Mariner is taken to the coast in the boat. As soon as they get
on shore, the Mariner feels the urgent need to tell his story to the Hermit, who
listens to him and sets him free. As a clear reference to the Christian
sacrament of confession, the mariner asks the Hermit to shrieve (his) soul
and he claims hell wash away The Albatrosss blood.

Nevertheless, this painful need returns to the mariner every now and
then. He says:

Since then, at an uncertain hour,

That agony returns:

And till my ghastly tale is told.
This heart within me burns.

The moment he comes across a man who needs to learn from his tale, he
knows it, and he has to relate the story, as it is the case with the WeddingGuest.

When The Ancient Mariner finishes his tale, the church doors open, and
the wedding guests go out, merry in their ignorance and blissfully unaware of
the mariners terrible fate. Perhaps it is the Wedding Guest who should
endeavor to open their eyes and pass the Ancient Mariners advice:
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.