English XII Third Trimester

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Assignment and Worksheets

by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Coleridge
Period 3
Group Oral Reports

1. The class will be divided into 6 groups, consisting of 3 to 5 members each, for
parts II, III, IV, V, VI and VII of the poem. Each group will read their part of The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner aloud, and then summarize it beyond the italicized
author’s notes included in the text.

2. Each group will give examples of poetic devices (where applicable), i.e.,
alliteration, allusion, connotation, figurative language, hyperbole, imagery, irony,
metaphor, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, personification, setting, simile, symbol,
synesthesia, and internal rhyme. In other words, if it’s in the glossary, we want to
hear about it.

3. Each group will report the progressive consequences and effects the death of the
albatross has on the Mariner. For example, in Part IV, why is the Mariner unable
to pray and what happens to change this?

4. Each group will report on the changing mental states of the Mariner?

5. Each group will report the progressive effects the Mariner’s tale has on the
wedding guest (where applicable).

6. There was a time in America when almost every schoolchild could recite parts of
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Find some verses you think are particularly
quotable. What situations in contemporary life could you apply the lines to?

7. Discuss the ballad as allegory. An allegory is a narrative in which the characters,

settings, and actions are symbolic; that is, they have both a literal and a figurative
meaning. Could your part of Coleridge’s ballad have both a literal and an
allegorical meaning? If so, what do the various elements in the ballad symbolize?
What meaning would the tale have on an allegorical level? Be sure to consider
the meaning of:

1) the Ancient Mariner

2) the wedding
3) the ship
4) the albatross
5) the sailors
6) the various settings in the rime
7) the moral lesson

Note: Your class work and preparation in class leading up to your presentation, the oral
report itself, plus your participation in listening and reacting to the presentations of
other groups make up half of your poetry unit grade. Your participation in class on all
days will be evaluated, so take this assignment seriously. When oral presentations are
delivered, test conditions apply – in other words, no talking. If I can’t hear it, it isn’t
happening and everyone’s grade suffers.
 WORK SHEET

Period III
Part I (82)
Part II (60)
Part III (81)
Part IV (68)
Part V (118)
Part VI (104)
Part VII (112)

1 Summary

2 Poetic Devices:
allusion, simile,
metaphor, imagery,
internal rhyme, etc.

3 Consequences of
killing the Albatross

4 Mariner’s Mental The Ancient Mariner drifted on the ocean in this company,
State unable to pray. One night he noticed some beautiful water-
snakes frolicking at the ship's prow in the icy moonlight.
Watching the creatures brought him unprecedented joy, and he
blessed them without meaning to. When he was finally able to
pray, the Albatross fell from his neck and sank into the sea. He
could finally sleep, and dreamed of water. The Mariner feels a
sense of peace that is new to him. When he awoke, it was
raining, and an awesome thunderstorm began. He drank his
fill, and the ship began to sail in lieu of wind. Then the dead
sailors suddenly arose and sailed the ship without speaking.
They sang heavenly music, which the ship's sails continued
when they had stopped.
5 Wedding Guest’s
reaction to the
Mariner

6 Quotable Verses
7 Allegory: what do the
Mariner, ship,
wedding, sailors, and
albatross symbolize?
 WORK SHEET

1 Summary

2 Poetic Devices:
allusion, simile,
metaphor, imagery,
internal rhyme, etc.

3 Consequences of
killing the Albatross

4 Mariner’s Mental
State

5 Wedding Guest’s
reaction to the
Mariner

6 Quotable Verses

7 Allegory: what do the

Mariner, ship,
wedding, sailors, and
albatross symbolize?
Name: _______________________________
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
CLASS PRESENTATION NOTE SHEET
1 Summary
Part I

2 Poetic Devices:
allusion, simile,
metaphor, imagery,
internal rhyme, etc.

3 Consequences of
killing the Albatross

4 Mariner’s Mental
State

5 Wedding Guest’s
reaction to the
Mariner

6 Quotable Verses

7 Allegory: what do the

Mariner, ship,
wedding, sailors, and
albatross symbolize?
Name: _______________________________
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
CLASS PRESENTATION NOTE SHEET
1 Summary
Part II

2 Poetic Devices:
allusion, simile,
metaphor, imagery,
internal rhyme, etc.

3 Consequences of
killing the Albatross

4 Mariner’s Mental
State

5 Wedding Guest’s
reaction to the
Mariner

6 Quotable Verses

7 Allegory: what do the

Mariner, ship,
wedding, sailors, and
albatross symbolize?
Name: _______________________________
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
CLASS PRESENTATION NOTE SHEET
1 Summary
Part III

2 Poetic Devices:
allusion, simile,
metaphor, imagery,
internal rhyme, etc.

3 Consequences of
killing the Albatross

4 Mariner’s Mental
State

5 Wedding Guest’s
reaction to the
Mariner

6 Quotable Verses

7 Allegory: what do the

Mariner, ship,
wedding, sailors, and
albatross symbolize?
Name: _______________________________
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
CLASS PRESENTATION NOTE SHEET
1 Summary The Wedding Guest declares that the Ancient Mariner is frightening because
Part IV he is unnaturally skinny, tanned and wrinkled to the point of resembling
sand, and has a "glittering eye." He is the only sailor who did not die on his
ship, but rather drifted in lonely, scorching pain, according to the Ancient
Mariner. The plethora of "slimy" animals in the ocean were his only living
companions. He tried to pray, but all he got was a hushed curse. The
Ancient Mariner was alone on the ship for seven days and nights. The dead
sailors tried to curse him with their open arms, despite the fact that they
miraculously did not rot. The Ancient Mariner's spirits were only raised by
the sight of beautiful water snakes frolicking alongside the ships. They
cheered him up to the point that he thanked them as "unawares," and he
was actually able to pray. The Albatross slipped off his neck and sunk
heavily into the ocean at that precise moment.

As the Ancient Mariner drifts on the ocean, the natural world becomes more
threatening. His surroundings - the ship, the ocean, and the creatures
within it - are "rotting" in the heat and sun, but he is the one who is rotten
on the inside. Meanwhile the sailors' corpses refuse to rot, and their open
eyes curse him continuously, giving the Ancient Mariner a visible
manifestation of the living death that awaits him. He will age, but his body
will never rot enough to release his soul; his eye will glitter forever with the
horror of damnation. As the Ancient Mariner floats, he becomes delirious,
unable to escape his overwhelming loneliness even by sleeping: "I closed my
lids, and kept them close, / And the balls like pulses beat; / For the sky and
the sea, and the sea and the sky / Lay like a load on my weary eye..." His
depravity has even denied him the comfort of prayer.

Ironically, it is the "slimy", "rotten" creatures themselves that finally

comfort the Ancient Mariner and allow him to pray. Until this moment,
Coleridge's imagery has underscored the overbearing nature of the Ancient
Mariner's environment: it is hot, salty, pungent, and "rotten." However, his
surroundings - and the imagery that accompanies them - turn cool in the
moonlight. Coleridge compares the moonlight to a gentle frost, connecting it
to the serenity of the "rime": "[The moon's] beams bemocked the sultry
main, / Like April hoar-frost spread." Aglow in the moonlight, the sea
creatures begin frolicking, rather than churning nastily; creatures of a
beautiful, supernatural world, they "moved in tracks of shining white, / And
when they reared, the elfish light / Fell off in hoary flakes...I watched their
rich attire; / Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, / They coiled and swam;
and every track / Was a flash of golden fire." Whereas Coleridge's
descriptions of the ghost ship, sun, and sailors are replete with spare, harsh
imagery, he describes the water-snakes in decadent, lush terms. Only when
the Ancient Mariner is able to appreciate the beauty of the natural world is
he granted the ability to pray - and, it is implied, eventually redeem himself.
Earlier in the work, the desiccated setting represented the Ancient Mariner's
moral drought, but the moment he begins to view the natural world
benevolently, his spiritual thirst is quenched: "A spring of love gushed from
my heart." As a sign that his burden has been lifted, the Albatross - the
burden of sin - falls from his neck: it is no longer his cross to bear.
2 Poetic Devices:
allusion, simile,
metaphor, imagery,
internal rhyme, etc.
3 Consequences of
killing the Albatross

4 Mariner’s Mental
State

5 Wedding Guest’s
reaction to the
Mariner

6 Quotable Verses 'I fear thee, ancient Mariner!

I fear thy skinny hand!
And thou art long, and lank, and brown,
As is the ribbed sea-sand.

I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;

But or ever a prayer had gusht,
A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.
7 Allegory: what do the
Mariner, ship,
wedding, sailors, and
albatross symbolize?

Name: _______________________________
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
CLASS PRESENTATION NOTE SHEET
1 Summary
Part V

2 Poetic Devices:
allusion, simile,
metaphor, imagery,
internal rhyme, etc.
3 Consequences of
killing the Albatross

4 Mariner’s Mental
State

5 Wedding Guest’s
reaction to the
Mariner

6 Quotable Verses

7 Allegory: what do the

Mariner, ship,
wedding, sailors, and
albatross symbolize?

Name: _______________________________
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
CLASS PRESENTATION NOTE SHEET
1 Summary
Part VI

2 Poetic Devices:
allusion, simile,
metaphor, imagery,
internal rhyme, etc.
3 Consequences of
killing the Albatross

4 Mariner’s Mental
State

5 Wedding Guest’s
reaction to the
Mariner

6 Quotable Verses

7 Allegory: what do the

Mariner, ship,
wedding, sailors, and
albatross symbolize?

Name: _______________________________
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
CLASS PRESENTATION NOTE SHEET
1 Summary
Part VII

2 Poetic Devices:
allusion, simile,
metaphor, imagery,
internal rhyme, etc.
3 Consequences of
killing the Albatross

4 Mariner’s Mental
State

5 Wedding Guest’s
reaction to the
Mariner

6 Quotable Verses

7 Allegory: what do the

Mariner, ship,
wedding, sailors, and
albatross symbolize?