September 16

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Powerpoint adapted from the following site: ttosspon.wikispaces.com/file/view/Ancient+Mariner+and+Dore.ppt

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

 The wedding guest
is mesmerized by
the Mariner’s
passion and begins
listening to the
story.

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

 “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!”

 Surrounded by
ice.

 An albatross
appears.

 The albatross
leads them out
of the fog.

 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.

 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.

 A ghost ship
approaches with
a Specter-Woman
and her Death-
Mate as crew.

 “Death” and “Life
in Death” roll dice
for the lives of the
ship’s crew.
 “Life in Death”
wins.

 “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!”

 “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.”

 “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 curse is lifted
and the albatross
falls from his neck
and sinks “like lead
into the sea.”

 The dead men
awaken and the
Mariner directs his
ghostly crew
North.

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

 The Mariner’s
ship sinks.

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

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…
Milton Parallels?
(Paradise Lost)
Shelley’s Interpretation?
(Frankenstein)

“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…

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

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“)

“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

Vs.
Some critics maintain that this ballad was an
exploration, by Coleridge, into the science vs.
spirituality debate:
There are many mysterious fantastical images,
 the “glittering eye” with its “strange power…”
 the “polar spirits” and “seraph band…”
The Latin preface says, “Human cleverness has
always sought knowledge of these things, never
attained it.”
He was at a point in his life where he was more concerned
with the rational than the empirical, this poem was an
exploration of the former.

 Return to the enchantment of the
world before science
 Altered mental states (like those of
the outlaws and exiles)
 Look for the elements of a Gothic
novel (handout)

Readings listed on syllabus:
 Keats “The Eve of St. Agnes” (pp.
912-922)
 Walpole The Castle of Otranto (pp. 586-
589)
 Radcliffe The Mysteries of Udolpho (pp.
601-602)
Bring back your literature circle
rankings

September 16

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