The Ancient Mariner shoots an albatross that had been following the ship. This act dooms the ship's crew as the weather turns bitter cold. The Mariner is cursed to wander telling his story as a warning against harming innocent creatures. The poem explores themes of nature, morality, and man's relationship with the spiritual world.

2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Born in Ottery St. Mary,Devonshire, England. He was the youngest son of the vicar of
Otterry St. Mary. He was sent to the Christ’s Hospital School in London after his
fathers death. He also studied at Jesus College and after he went to Cambridge and
met a poet named Robert Southey. In 1795, he married the sisters of Robert’s fiancée,
Sara Fricker, and he didn’t love her.
• He was suffering from neurological and rheumatic pains and after he became
addicted to opium. Living in London, he was on the verge of sucide.
Introduction

3. • was published in 1798 in Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems that
essentially launched the movement known as British Romanticism
• has several hallmarks that would later become associated with
Romanticism: elements of the supernatural, a deep sense of history, lots of
dramatic images of nature, formal experimentation, and an interest in
conversational language, among others
• it exemplified many of the genre's themes, the most central of these is the
subjectivity of experience and the importance of the individual
• "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" also exemplified the Romantic
fascination with the holy in nature
• Coleridge places the Ancient Mariner out in the open ocean for much of
the poem, making him very small and vulnerable in comparison to the
forces of nature.

4. • Romantics also went against the earlier trend of championing
religious institution and instead locating the spiritual and
sublime in nature. Despite the Ancient Mariner's expression of
love for communal prayer, his message reveals his belief that
the true path to God is through communing with and
respecting nature.

7. • One of three people on their way to a wedding reception; he is next
of kin to the bridegroom.
• The Ancient Mariner stops him, and despite his protests compels
him to sit and listen to the entirety of his story.
• He is afraid of the Ancient Mariner and yearns to join the
merriment of the wedding celebration, but after he hears the
Ancient Mariner's story, he becomes both "sadder and...wiser."

8. • Two hundred seamen who set sail with the Ancient Mariner one clear, sunny day and find
themselves in the icy world of the "rime" after a storm, from which the Albatross frees them.
• They feed and play with the Albatross until the Ancient Mariner inexplicably kills it. They begin to
suffer from debilitating heat and thirst.
• They hang the Albatross's corpse around the Ancient Mariner's neck to punish him. When Life-in-
Death wins the Ancient Mariner's soul, the sailors' souls are left to Death and they curse the Ancient
Mariner with their eyes before dying suddenly.
• Even though their souls fly out, their bodies refuse to rot and lie open-eyed on the deck,
continuously cursing the Ancient Mariner. After the rain returns, the sailors come alive and silently
man the ship, singing beautiful melodies.
• When the ship reaches the harbor, they once again curse the Ancient Mariner with their eyes and
then disappear, leaving only their bodies behind.
• The Ancient Mariner is destined to suffer the curse of a living death and continually be haunted by
their cursing eyes.

9. • A great, white sea bird that presumably saves the sailors from the icy world of the "rime" by
allowing them to steer through the ice and sending them a good, strong wind.
• The Albatross, however, also makes a strange mist follow the ship. It flies alongside the ship,
plays with the sailors, and eats their food, until the Ancient Mariner shoots it with his
crossbow.
• Its corpse is hung around the Ancient Mariner's neck as a reminder of his crime and falls off
only when he is able to appreciate the beauty of nature and pray once more.
• The Albatross is loved by a powerful spirit who wreaks havoc on and kills the sailors while
leaving the Ancient Mariner to the special agony of Life-in-Death.
Death
• Embodied in a hulking form on the ghost ship.
• He loses at dice to Life-in-Death, who gets to claim the Ancient Mariner's soul; instead, Death
wins the two hundred sailors.

10. • Embodied in a beautiful, naked, ghostly woman with golden hair and red lips.
• She wins at dice over Death and gets to claim the Ancient Mariner's soul,
condemning him to a limbo-like living death.
• Pilot
• The captain of the small boat that rows out to the Ancient Mariner's ship.
• He loses his mind when the Ancient Mariner abruptly comes to life and begins to
row his boat.
• Pilot's Boy
• The assistant to the Pilot; he rows the small boat.
• He loses his mind when the Ancient Mariner, whom he thinks is dead, abruptly
comes to life and takes the oars from him.

14. It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din.‘
He holds him with his skinny hand,
'There was a ship,' quoth he.
'Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!'
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
He holds him with his glittering eye--
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
Stanza 1
Stanza 2
Stanza 3
Stanza 4
Stanza 5

16. Stanza 6
Stanza 7
Stanza 8
Stanza 9
Stanza 10
'The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the lighthouse top.
The Sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.
Higher and higher every day,
Till over the mast at noon--'
The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.
The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

18. Stanza 11
Stanza 12
Stanza 13
Stanza 14
Stanza 15
And now the Storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:
He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.
With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.
And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--
The ice was all between.
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!

20. Stanza 16
Stanza 17
Stanza 18
Stanza 19
Stanza 20
At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.
It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!
And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners' hollo!
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.‘
'God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--
Why look'st thou so?'--'With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross.'

21. Everyone is happy to see another
living thing fly past the ship: an
albatross! You know, the bird
with huge, white wings that can
fly long distances across the
ocean? Yeah, that one.
The albatross seems particularly
friendly, almost as if it were a
person. And not just a person,
but a good "Christian soul."
Somehow the bird seems related
to God and peace.
The sailors feed the bird, and
naturally it sticks around. Soon
enough, the ice that had trapped
them splits wide enough apart
for the ship to sail through.

22. More good things happen to the ship.A south
wind that will take them back up north again
starts to blow. The albatross continues to
follow the boat in good fortune, and everyone
treats it like their pet.
Then people start to notice that the
Mariner has this sickly look on his face.
They try to cheer up him: "What's
wrong, man? Don't let the fiends get
you down!"
The albatross follows them around for nine
nights, or "vespers." It's still pretty foggy
outside, and the moon glows through the fog
at night.
And the mariner essentially says, "Remember
that albatross that seemed so mysteriously
connected to all our good fortune?" Gulp. Uh-
huh? "Well, I kind of took my crossbow and shot
it." YOU DID WHAT?!

25. The Sun now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came he,
Still hid in mist, and on the left
Went down into the sea.
And the good south wind still blew behind,
But no sweet bird did follow,
Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariners' hollo!
And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!
Nor dim nor red like God's own head,
The glorious Sun uprist:
Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
'Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

26. Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
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 very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.
About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.
And some in dreams assur'ed were
Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.
And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.
Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross

27. Paraphrase
• The ship sailed northward into the Pacific Ocean, and although the sun shone during the day and the wind
remained strong, the mist held fast. The other sailors were angry with the Ancient Mariner for killing the
Albatross, which they believed had saved them from the icy world by summoning the wind: "Ah wretch! Said
they, the bird to slay / That made the breeze to blow!" Then the mist disappeared and the sun shone particularly
brightly, "like God's own head." The sailors suddenly changed their opinion. They decided that the Albatross must
have brought the must, and praise the Ancient Mariner for having killed it and rid them of the mist.
• The ship sailed along merrily until it entered an uncharted part of the ocean, and the wind disappeared. The ship
could not move, and sat "As idle as a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean." Then the sun became unbearably hot
just as the sailors ran out of water, leading up to the most famous lines in the poem: "Water, water, every where,
/ And all the boards did shrink; / Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink." The ocean became a
horrifying place; the water churned with "slimy" creatures, and at night, eerie fires seemed to burn on the
ocean's surface. Some of the sailors dreamed that an evil spirit had followed them from the icy world, and they
all suffered from a thirst so terrible that they could not speak. To brand the Ancient Mariner for his crime and
place the guilt on him and him alone, the sailors hung the Albatross's dead carcass around his neck.

28. • Sad and somber, loneliness
• No irony
• Sad, gruesome, and horrifying

29. • The speaker is the man that has
experienced the situation he is
describing, to express his experiences.
• Directly speaking to the audience

30. • Similes:
• 'Twas sad as sad could be
• As idle as a painted ship
• The water, like a witch's oils
• Metaphors:
• Nor dim nor red like God's own head
• We stuck, nor breath nor motion
• Personification:
• But no sweet bird did follow
• Into that silent sea
• The bloody Sun, at noon
• Upon a painted ocean.
• The death-fires danced at night;

33. How does the soundcontribute to the effect of the poem?
• Rhyme-
The Sun now rose upon the right: (a)
Out of the sea came he, (b)
Still hid in mist, and on the left (c)
Went down into the sea. (b)
And the good south wind still blew behind ,(d)
But no sweet bird did follow, (e)
Nor any day for food or play (f)
Came to the mariners' hollo! (e)
• No repetition
• Alliteration-
The Sun now rose upon the right
• No assonance

34. Poem Structure
• Stanzas
• rhyme pattern
• rhyme at the ends
of lines, at the
ends of stanzas