ESSAY CEMETERY

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

Summarized from the historical background in the Norton Anthology, 4ed Personal History Even though medieval scholars did not recognize the existence of any classes other than aristocracy and commoners, a middle class came into being and it was to this Chaucer belonged. He grew up amongst commoners but was sent as a teenager to serve as a page in the court of Lionel of Antwerp, son of Edward III, reigning monarch and brother to John of Gaunt. Chaucer thus spent the rest of his life amongst nobles. He married a woman of high birth and his children and grandchildren went on to be eminent people and married amongst nobility; Chaucer managed to jump the gap between the common and aristocratic classes. Aside from poetry, Chaucer was involved in many other trades- he served as soldier, tradesman for the nobility, diplomat, forester and more. He was favored by the nobility, receiving rent-free housing, and grants. During the entirety of his life he came into constant contact wit