The document provides an overview and summary of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." It describes the key events and characters in the poem, including the Mariner stopping a wedding guest and telling him the story of shooting an albatross, causing his shipmates to die while stranded at sea, and the supernatural elements involved. The summary also discusses different interpretations of the poem as an allegory and Coleridge's own struggles that may have influenced the work.

1. The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October
1772 – 25 July 1834) was an English
poet, literary critic and philosopher who,
with his friend William Wordsworth, was a
founder of the Romantic Movement in
England and a member of the Lake
Poets. He is probably best known for his
poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
and Kubla Khan, as well as for his major
prose work Biographia Literaria. His
critical work, especially on Shakespeare,
was highly influential, and he helped
introduce German idealist philosophy to
English-speaking culture..

3. An Ancient Mariner
stops one (of three)
on his way to a
wedding.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

4. The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner
The wedding
guest is
mesmerized by
the Mariner’s
passion and
begins listening to
the story.

5.  The Mariner’s Tale:
 Their ship is driven
south, by a storm, to
a place of “mist and
snow.”
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

6.  “The ice was here,
the ice was there,
The ice was all
around: It cracked
and growled, and
roared and
howled, Like
noises in a
swound!”
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

7. Surrounded by
ice.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

8. An albatross
appears.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

9. The albatross
leads them out
of the fog.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

10.  The Mariner shoots the
albatross. At first the
crew condemns him, but
when a favorable breeze
appears, they justify his
action. This implicates
them in his crime.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

11.  Later, the wind stops and
the ship is stranded for
days, “As idle as a painted
ship upon a painted ocean.”
 “Water, water, every where,
and all the boards did
shrink; Water, water, every
where, nor any drop to
drink.”
 The crew blames the
Mariner for no wind and
hangs the albatross around
his neck as punishment.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

12. A ghost ship
approaches with
a Specter-
Woman and her
Death-Mate as
crew.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

13. “Death” and “Life
in Death” roll dice
for the lives of
the ship’s crew.
“Life in Death”
wins.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

14.  “Each turned his face
with a ghastly pang, and
cursed me with his eye”
 “With heavy thump, a
lifeless lump, they
dropped down one by
one.”
 “The souls did from their
bodies fly, - They fled to
bliss or woe! And every
soul, it passed me by,
Like the whizz of my
cross-bow!”
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

15.  “Alone, alone, all,
all alone, alone on a
wide wide sea! And
never a saint took
pity on my soul in
agony.”
 “Seven days, seven
nights, I saw that
curse, and yet I
could not die.”
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

16.  “Beyond the shadow
of the ship, I
watched the water-
snakes”
 “O happy living
things! No tongue
their beauty might
declare: A spring of
love gushed from
my heart, and I
blessed them
unaware”
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

17. The curse is lifted
and the albatross
falls from his neck
and sinks “like
lead into the sea.”
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

18. The dead men
awaken and the
Mariner directs
his ghostly crew
North.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

19.  As the Mariner returns
to his home port, the
spirits of his crew leave
their bodies.
 He receives forgiveness
(shrieve) from a hermit.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

20. The Mariner’s
ship sinks.
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

21.  The story
concluded, the
wedding guest
leaves “a sadder
and a wiser
man.”
 The Mariner
must tell his tale
to warn others
(redemption).
The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner

23. Many critics see
the “Rime of the
Ancient Mariner”
as an allegory of
some kind of fall,
like…
Of Coleridge -
Of Lucifer - Of Adam & Eve -
…forbidden fruit…cast into hell
…opium?
“…the very deep did
rot…”
“…slimy things …
Slimy sea”
“I shot the albatross”
“…and I had done a
hellish thing…”
“witch‟s oils, / …burnt
green, and blue and
white”
Phantasmagoria!
A shifting series or
succession of things seen or
imagined, as in a dream.
STRUCTURE:
Sin, Punishment, Redemption…
Shelley’s Interpretation?
(Frankenstein)

24. “poetry gives most pleasure when only generally
and not perfectly understood"
- Coleridge
Many critics maintain, as Christopher Lamb does,
that the „Ancient Mariner‟ is a work of complete
and pure imagination. As…
No single interpretation seems to
fit the entire poem…
In essence, it is a very imaginative
and unusual piece…

25. Purely inspirational? Dark gothic?
“cursed me with his eye”
“Life-in-death”
“spectre bark”
Gustav Doré‟s Dark Etches…

26. Coleridge felt a deep sense of sin,
for his opium addiction.
The poem could be his way of fathoming his
feelings.
The “strange power” of the Ancient Mariner, as his difficult feelings.
“mingled strangely with my fears”
“I know that man … must hear me” / “To him my tale I teach”
Hence, his sensitivity and saying that the poem
should not be analyzed?
(“poetry gives most pleasure when only
generally and not perfectly understood“)

27. “Instead of the cross, the Albatross/
About my neck was hung”
“I had killed the bird / That made
the breeze to blow”
“Hailed it in God‟s name”
“Christian soul”
“Crimson red like Gods own head”
- “Hid in mist”
- “dungeon-grate” “blessed them
unawares”
Crew
distanced
from God