The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Romantic Movement The Romantic period in English literature spans the latter part of
the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Characterized by individual thought
and personal feeling, the Romantics wrote about their own unique experiences, expressing
their work through the lens of their own particularly intense emotional response to something
(usually something in nature). Coleridge's descriptions of the ice, the storms, and the sea
serpents in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner are beautiful and powerful verbal depictions of
the beauty of the natural world.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge was first published in the
volume“ Lyrical Ballads ”published in 1798, then an author's work during a successive
version for no more than thirty-one years. There is a cult ballad considered to be a
masterpiece of English romanticism, being the sub-famous "two cardinal points of poetry", in
Coleridge's vision: familiar and simple agriculture, and the magic of the supernatural. The
opera was favored by critics rather as a narrative ballad, also lyrical and also a noted structure
favorable, dramatic, action that can be acted for a theater: “in Part I and committed the deed
[killing the albatross]; Part II, which may follow the punishment; in Part III the punishment
suffered reaches its climax; Part IV brings a turn: in the midst of the crisis of the suffering of
the old sailor, the solidarity consciousness is born to create [fantastic - supernatural] creators
and repentance for the cruelty of caring for the date; in Parts V and VI it refers to the
retention of the hero and to the return, by which there are certain supernatural forces, in the
company of men; and Part VII, bring us back to the first scene, the work being concluded
with the moral that the hero has ”.

Title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a rime, an alternate spelling of rhyme, told by an
old sailor, or a mariner. The ancientness of his status suggests a kind of eternal wisdom, as if
the Mariner has something to share with readers. However, rime can also mean "frost," an icy
substance that can form on sails and ships. Antarctica, one of the locations detailed in the
poem, also evokes this frosty image. The Mariner, too, is often described with frost imagery.

Characters:

Character Description

Wedding Guest The Wedding Guest is a man attending his kinsman's wedding.

Mariner The Mariner is an old sailor. 

Albatross The Albatross is a sea bird that the Mariner kills.

 Life-in-Death Life-in-Death is a woman aboard the ghost ship. 

First Voice The First Voice is a voice that the Mariner overhears.

Second Voice The Second Voice is a voice that the Mariner overhears.

Pilot The Pilot is a man who rescues the Mariner in the harbor.

The Pilot's Boy is his son, also in the boat with the Pilot when he rescues the
Pilot's Boy
Mariner.

Hermit The Hermit is a holy man who is also in the boat with the Pilot.

Plot Summary

Part 1

Intent on relating his tale, an old sailor stops a young man on his way to a wedding. The
Mariner tells of an ocean voyage with a sailing crew. Once the ship gets blown off course, it
ends up at the South Pole, trapped in ice. When an Albatross passes, its presence seems to
break the ice surrounding the ship. The crew sails away with the Albatross following. The
Mariner then shoots the Albatross for no reason.

Part 2

Believing the bird had brought favorable winds, the crew becomes angry. Then crew members
are glad that the Mariner shot the Albatross because they believe the bird brought a thick fog.
The ships sails into strange waters and then the wind ceases. Suffering from terrible thirst that
drives them mad, the men hang the dead Albatross around the Mariner's neck.

Part 3

The Mariner spies a strange ghostly ship, piloted by Death and Life-in-Death. The two figures
roll dice to see who will take the Mariner's soul, and Life-in-Death wins the game. Death
takes the lives of the crew, leaving the Mariner the only live person on the ship.

Part 4
The Mariner has no food or water, but still he lives. He watches sea serpents swim in the
water, blessing their presence. When the Albatross breaks free from the Mariner's neck, he is
suddenly able to pray again.

Part 5

The Mariner sleeps and wakes to find rain that he can drink. As a storm approaches, the ship
sails on, seemingly without any wind to propel it. Their bodies taken over by angels, the dead

crew members help sail the ship. Suddenly the ship is tossed about and the Mariner falls into a
swoon where he hears two voices talking about him and the penance he must do.

Part 6

When the Mariner wakes, night has fallen. The crew members continue to sail the ship until it
appears in the Mariner's home harbor. Then the spirits inhabiting the bodies leave, and the
crew members collapse, truly dead. A Pilot, his son, and a Hermit approach the ship.

Part 7

The ship sinks, but the Mariner is hauled aboard the Pilot's boat. They are all shocked when
he speaks, thinking him dead. When they return to land, the Mariner tells the Hermit his tale.

When he is finished, he feels better. The Mariner tells the Wedding Guest that the need to tell
his tale grows inside of him and then he must find someone to tell it to or the pain becomes
unbearable. His tale told, the Mariner leaves the Wedding Guest, who goes home and ponders
what the Mariner told him.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

Literary devices are tools used by writers to convey their emotions, ideas, and themes to make
texts more appealing to the reader. Samuel Taylor Coleridge has used various literary devices
to enhance the intended impacts of his poem. Some of the major literary devices have been
analyzed below.

Symbolism: Symbolism is a use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities, by giving them
symbolic meanings that are different from their literal meanings. Here, Albatross is a symbol
of good luck and woman represents perpetual temptation.
Rhetorical Question: Rhetorical question is a sentence that is posed to make the point clear.
For example, “What manner of man art thou?”, “That signal made but now?” and “Is this the
hill? Is this the kirk?”

Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break;
instead, it continues to the next line. For example,

“Laughed loud and long, and all the while

His eyes went to and fro.”

Imagery: Imagery is used to perceive things involving five senses. For example, “What loud
uproar bursts from that door”, “I stood on the firm land” and “The boat came closer to the
ship.”

Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the

objects that are different. The entire poem is an extended metaphor for a supernatural theme,
an allusion to Christ’s death and sacrifices through the Mariner’s life and adventure. Albatross
is a metaphor for a mental burden or curse. In “spring of love gushed from my heart” is
‘spring of love’ is a metaphor for love and attraction.

Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate objects. For example,

“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.” As if the Sun is a person who can swim or dive.

Simile: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects
that are different using ‘as’ or ‘like’. For example, “Every soul, it passed me by, Like the
whizz of my crossbow” in lines 223-224. Here the souls are compared to the speed of the
crossbow.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis
of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. The entire poem is divided into seven parts.
There are four-line stanzas, five-lined stanzas, and also six-lined stanzas.

Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here most stanzas
are quatrain.

End Rhyme: End rhyme is used to make a stanza melodious. For example, “tell/well”,
“bends/friends” and “returns/burns.”
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner | Symbols

Albatross

The Albatross symbolizes many things in Coleridge's poem. In maritime lore these birds were
seen by sailors both as a sign of good luck and as a bad omen. Sailors often thought the
albatross carried the souls of dead sailors that would protect the ship or bring good winds, but
just as often they thought the bird to be a death omen—a sign that a sailor would soon die. It
is this conflicted belief in what the albatross represents that causes the crewmen to be angry
with the Mariner, then be happy that he killed it.

The Albatross represents the sublime. It is a natural creature with a spiritual connection (the
spirit that loved the bird and seeks penance for the wrong done to the both of them). It links
the two worlds since its death is the inciting incident that sets the Mariner on his path to both
Romantic enlightenment and hopeful absolution. Because the Mariner did not appreciate the
sublime (the Albatross), he was punished by being unable to connect to the spiritual world
through prayer. When he finally recognizes the power and beauty of the sublime in the form
of the sea snakes, the Mariner regains the power of prayer and the Albatross drops from
around his neck to sink into the sea. Because the Mariner learned to appreciate the sublime—
which he didn't with his senseless killing of the bird—the Albatross's job is done.

The Albatross also functions as a Christlike figure in the poem. It is innocent of any
wrongdoing; in fact it came when the Mariner called for it. Based on the text we are led to
believe the bird broke the ice that had trapped the ship. Having saved the crewmen and
befriending the Mariner, it is all the more shocking when the Mariner kills it for no apparent
reason. The Albatross is the innocent Christ, having committed no crime to deserve death, and
the Mariner is his betrayer, Judas. The Albatross is usually mentioned in conjunction with
Christian references: "At length did cross an Albatross: / Thorough the fog it came; / As if it
had been a Christian soul, / We hailed it in God's name," and "Instead of the cross, the
Albatross / About my neck was hung." The Mariner's story also dovetails nicely with the tale
of the Wandering Jew. The man was punished to live until Christ's second coming for striking
Jesus; the Mariner is punished for striking and killing the Albatross, reinforcing the Christlike
imagery for the bird.

The Gaze

Eyes and stares play an important part of the narrative. The Wedding Guest notices the
Mariner's "glittering eye" as the sailor first stops him. The Wedding Guest is held by the
power of his stare, unable to break away. The Mariner's stare seems almost supernatural in the
way it affects the Wedding Guest. Not only is the story compelling the young man to listen,
but the Mariner's gaze also compels him to listen as well.
The eyes become the only means of communication when speech is denied. When the
Mariner's crew suffers from thirst and can't speak, they shoot him "evil looks" as they blame
him for their circumstances. In addition, the Mariner mentions how glazed the crew's eyes are
to convey their weariness even when they can't talk. After they encounter the ghostly ship of
Life-in-Death, the crew turns to the Mariner and "Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, /
And cursed me with his eye."

The silent communication continues even after the death of the crew. The curse never fades
from their eyes, and for seven days and nights their stares are now a supernatural
manifestation after their death. It continues when they rise and begin to sail the Mariner
home: "All fixed on me their stony eyes, / That in the Moon did glitter. / The pang, the curse,
with which they died, / Had never passed away: / I could not draw my eyes from theirs, / Nor
turn them up to pray." The Mariner realizes that he is still laboring under the effects of the
curse through the gazes of the dead crew, even though he seems to be on his way to
forgiveness. It is a foreshadowing that he still has more penance to perform.

The Sun and Moon

The Sun and Moon are symbols for the forces opposing the Mariner's journey. The Sun and
Moon clash, the symbols of the supernatural and the natural world. When the Mariner and his
crew are in trouble after he has shot the Albatross, the imagery is entirely of the Sun and
sunlight. The sailors fear deadly circumstances such as heat, thirst, and drought. The Sun is a
part of the natural world, something awesome and terrifying, an instance of the sublime.
When Life-in-Death's mystery ship appears, the images associated with that scene are replete
with mentions of the Sun.

The Moon is often associated with the supernatural and the mysterious bond between it and
the oceans. The Moon controls the tides, and its influence helps the Mariner get back home.
When the Mariner's penance truly begins, the Moon has risen and the language changes from
harsh imagery to almost soothing passages. When the Mariner swoons and hears the two
Voices, one makes mention of the Moon looking down on him, almost like it is watching out
for the Mariner as it helps to guide him home. He arrives in the harbor beneath the shadow of
the Moon, fitting since the journey began under the light of the Sun. The cycle is complete.

If the Sun shows what is obvious, the Moon shows what is hidden. The Sun and the Moon are
opposing forces, but they must coexist. They rise and fall in a daily cycle, in unity if not
necessarily in harmony. The Mariner's cycle of sin and penance mirror this cycle as well.
Themes

Sin, Punishment, and Penance

The Mariner's penance is what drives the story—if he wasn't compelled to share his
experience and what he's learned, he would never have stopped the Wedding Guest in the first
place. When he shoots the Albatross, the Mariner sins against both nature and God. He did not
appreciate the innocent beauty found in the Albatross so he kills it without even knowing why
he did so. This act leads to his punishment—thirst and starvation, the death of his crew
members, deprivation and isolation—until he realizes and appreciates the grandeur of the
natural and supernatural world that the Albatross embodied. He is not fully absolved of his
crime though, as he is still called upon to do penance by relating his story to a person who
seems to be magically chosen as needing to hear his tale. His deprivations and torment may be
ended temporarily while on the ship, but his drive to confess is compelled by some
otherworldly urge (spiritual or supernatural is up to interpretation). With Life-in-Death having
won his soul, we can assume that the Mariner is doomed to live forever telling his story
without respite or face unbearable agony. In addition, the idea of never-ending penance is not
a new one. There are many stories that deal with punishment and absolution, including that of
the Wandering Jew, who reportedly taunts Jesus on the way to his crucifixion and then must
wander Earth until the second coming, and the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship that sails
forever and is never able to dock in a port. Coleridge draws upon the common theme to lend
his Ancient Mariner the pain and gravitas present in literary and folklore history. The
Mariner's sin was the work of a moment, but his penance is eternal.

The Sublime

The idea of the sublime is one of the tenets of the Romantic Period. When we think of a thing
as sublime, we believe it to be of great excellence or beauty, but the Romantics had a different
definition. To Coleridge and his contemporaries, the sublime represents something both
magnificent and terrible, something awe-inspiring and majestic usually associated with
nature. Coleridge possessed an even narrower view of what constituted sublime spaces,
believing that the limitlessness of the sea and sky and desert to be the only natural landscapes
to truly fit this ideal. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is full of these instances. The storm
that drives the ship to the South Pole, and the glaciers, ice, and mist that surround the ship
once they get there, are described as being beautiful, powerful, dangerous, and terrifying.
They inspire awe as much as they inspire fear. The sea serpents they view when the ship is
calmed are all described negatively. The Mariner and his crew only seem to see the storms,
ice, and creatures of the deep in negative ways, forgetting that they too are created by God
and are part of the natural world. These things may be awful, but they are also awe-full. By
only focusing on the one and not the other, the Mariner detaches himself from the natural
world and God's creation, leaving him open to the sin of unnecessarily killing the Albatross.
When the Mariner finally does see and accept the beauty of the sea snakes that surround the
ship, he is accepting the sublime. It is in that moment of clarity that he both accepts the beauty
of nature and God's hand in creating them. He understands his place in the natural and
spiritual order, beginning to understand the connections between. The Mariner is suddenly
able to pray and, for a time, the curse is broken. When he next feels unable to pray after
seeing the dead men once again staring at him, he remembers the sublime beauty of God's
hand in nature, and the feeling passes. As long as he remembers to accept the presence of the
sublime, the Mariner reaffirms his connection to both nature and God.

Nature and Spirit

The Romantic period is defined by an appreciation and glorification of nature, something we

see in Coleridge's poem. But The Rime of the Ancient Mariner walks a balanced line between
the natural world and the spiritual one. The Wedding Guest is supposed to attend the marriage
of his kinsman, a spiritual bonding beneath the eyes of God, but he's interrupted by the
Mariner, a seafarer with a closer bond with the natural world. The story the Mariner tells
blends aspects of the natural world and the spiritual. The power of the storms, the eerie beauty
of the ice, and the physical presence of the serpents are all dangers of the natural world. The
elements that buffet the ship, the lack of wind that strands it, and the lack of water that
threatens their lives are all natural in their origin. But the spirit that follows them from the
South Pole, the dead men rising to pilot the ship, and the ghostly ship are elements of the
spiritual and supernatural worlds. The Albatross flies between them, linking the Mariner's
natural world with the supernatural. The Mariner shooting and killing the Albatross is the
inciting incident of the poem. For whatever reason (the Mariner never gives one for why he
killed the bird), the Mariner's actions bring about the spiritual consequences of his actions. He
could have been demonstrating man's power over nature, and as such, God's own creations.
Regardless of why, the Mariner illustrates that this is not the proper way to engage the natural
world He loses the ability to pray and to interact with the spiritual world on his own behalf.
Instead he and the crew are at the mercy of the spirit of the South Pole and Death and Life-
inDeath. He cannot communicate with these beings or with God because he's lost the power
of speech and prayer. It is only when he begins to value the natural world that he regains his
ability to communicate and to confess, and this manifests in the help of the Moon and the
angelic possession of the crew to sail him home. Even the spirit of the South Pole, so angry at
the death of the Albatross, is helping guide the ship. The natural world and the spiritual work
in harmony because the Mariner realizes his ties to both and that they are never truly separate.
The Mariner's first audience is the Hermit, a holy man who sits, prays, and thinks on God.
The Mariner is confessing his sin, not just to God but to appease the natural order that he
upset when he killed the Albatross. The spiritual and the natural world combine in the
character of the Hermit: "He kneels at morn and noon and eve— / He hath a cushion plump: /
It is the moss that wholly hides / The rotted old oak stump." He prays to God, but he is
removed from mankind, choosing to do so in a natural setting. He is the man that the Mariner
believes can give him absolution, being in touch with both worlds. The Mariner leaves the
Wedding Guest with a moral and a warning for how to behave in order to avoid the Mariner's
fate. He counsels to both love God and His creatures, to be one with the sublime and the
Divine, and to accept the power of both for greater happiness. Coleridge's belief that these
two ideas are bound together, that one can reach a deeper spiritual feeling through the
interaction and appreciation of the natural world, is expressed to us as much as to the
Wedding Guest via the Mariner's story.