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 purgatory? Maybe it just means that those who sin, get punished

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

Sinners are punished

And the Albatross begins to be avenged.	Water, water, everywhere,
	And all the boards did shrink;
	Water, water, everywhere,
	Nor any drop to drink.

Spirits of inexplicable origins

And its ribs are seen as bars on the face of the setting Sun. The Spectre-Woman and her Death-mate, and no other on board the skeleton ship. Like vessel, like crew!	Are those her ribs through which the Sun
	Did peer, as through a grate?
	And is that Woman all her crew?
	Is that a Death? and are there two?
	Is Death that Woman's mate?

Death (perhaps a parody thereof?)

His shipmates drop down dead.	Four times fifty living men
	(And I heard nor sigh nor groan),
	With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
	They dropp'd down one by one.
But Life-in-Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner.	The souls did from their bodies fly—
	They fled to bliss or woe!
	And every soul, it pass'd me by
	Like the whizz of my crossbow!'

Forgiveness granted by praying

The spell begins to break.	The selfsame moment I could pray;
	And from my neck so free	290
	The Albatross fell off, and sank
	Like lead into the sea.
	PART V
	'O sleep! it is a gentle thing,
	Beloved from pole to pole!
	To Mary Queen the praise be given!	295
	She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,
	That slid into my soul.
By grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.	The silly buckets on the deck,
	That had so long remain'd,
	I dreamt that they were fill'd with dew;	300
	And when I awoke, it rain'd.

Ghosts/zombies

The bodies of the ship's crew are inspired, and the ship moves on;	The loud wind never reach'd the ship,
	Yet now the ship moved on!
	Beneath the lightning and the Moon	330
	The dead men gave a groan.
	They groan'd, they stirr'd, they all uprose,
	Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
	It had been strange, even in a dream,
	To have seen those dead men rise.	335
	The helmsman steer'd, the ship moved on;
	Yet never a breeze up-blew;
	The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,
	Where they were wont to do;
	They raised their limbs like lifeless tools—	340
	We were a ghastly crew.

Creepy redemption, counterintuitive in its sacredness (I mean, this doesn't seem like something god would bless a good man with)

But not by the souls of the men, nor by demons of earth or middle air, but by a blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent down by the invocation of the guardian saint.	'I fear thee, ancient Mariner!'
	Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest:
	'Twas not those souls that fled in pain,
	Which to their corses came again,
	But a troop of spirits blest:	350
	For when it dawn'd—they dropp'd their arms,
	And cluster'd round the mast;
	Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,

Miracle

Till noon we quietly sail'd on,
Yet never a breeze did breathe:	375
Slowly and smoothly went the ship,
Moved onward from beneath.

The telling of his sins alleviates agony

Forthwith this frame of mine was wrench'd
With a woful agony,	580
Which forced me to begin my tale;
And then it left me free.

Be good to all god's creatures and you will be happier

And to teach, by his own example, love and reverence to all things that God made and loveth.	Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
	To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
	He prayeth well, who loveth well
	Both man and bird and beast.
	He prayeth best, who loveth best	615
	All things both great and small;
	For the dear God who loveth us,
	He made and loveth all.'

Stories impart knowledge and affect people

He went like one that hath been stunn'd,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man	625
He rose the morrow morn. Samuel Taylor Coleridge