Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Analysis
KEY WORDS Wedding Mariner Sea- and ship-related words Storm Kirk STYLE AND DEVICES Side notes 4-9 line stanzas, varying rhyming schemes (typically ABAC or ABAB) THEMES/MOTIFS/SYMBOLISM Mariner as enchanter He holds him with his glittering eye— The Wedding-Guest stood still, And listens like a three years' child: 15 The Mariner hath his will. Albatross as Christian symbol At length did cross an Albatross, Thorough the fog it came; As if it had been a Christian soul, We hail'd it in God's name. Killing a Christian symbol!!!!! Blasphemy!!!! 'God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!— Why look'st thou so?'—'With my crossbow I shot the Albatross. The ship stops moving after killing the albatross, perhaps signifying that without God, there is pur