Category: Poetry

Coleridges Famous Poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner or this week, you have been asked to read Coleridge’s famous poem, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

For this week’s response, please comment on the inclusion of symbols, especially the albatross.

Why does the Mariner shoot the Albatross? Is any reason given in the poem? How is the albatross more than a plain old albatross — what is its spiritual significance, if any?

What do you make of the “breeze” that blows through the poem — i.e. that at certain points the Mariner’s ship is becalmed or takes sail?

Please comment on any other symbols that you noticed while reading this poem. Make sure to use direct quotes from the poem as support.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)

PART I

An ancient Mariner

meeteth three gallants

bidden to a wedding feast,

and detaineth one.

IT is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

‘By thy long beard and glittering eye,

Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?

The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide, 5

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. 10

‘Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!’

Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

The Wedding-Guest is

spell-bound by the eye of

the old seafaring man,

and constrained to hear

his tale.

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.

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:

He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner. 20

‘The ship was cheer’d, the harbour clear’d,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top.

The Mariner tells how the

ship sailed southward with

a good wind and fair

weather, till it reached the

Line.

The Sun came up upon the left, 25

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——’

30

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

The Wedding-Guest The bride hath paced into the hall,

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heareth the bridal music;

but the Mariner continueth

his tale.

Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her goes 35

The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,

Yet he cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner. 40

The ship drawn by a

storm toward the South

Pole.

‘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, 45

As who pursued with yell and blow

Still treads the shadow of his foe,

And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roar’d the blast,

The southward aye we fled. 50

And now there came both mist and snow,

And it grew wondrous cold:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,

As green as emerald.

The land of ice, and of

fearful sounds, where no

living thing was to be

seen.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts 55

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: 60

It crack’d and growl’d, and roar’d and howl’d,

Like noises in a swound!

Till a great sea-bird,

called the Albatross,

came through the snowfog,

and was received

with great joy and

hospitality.

At length did cross an Albatross,

Thorough the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul, 65

We hail’d 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 steer’d us through! 70

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And lo! the Albatross

proveth a bird of good

omen, and followeth the

ship as it returned

northward through fog

and floating ice.

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 shrou

suddenly becalmed. ‘Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea! 110

All in a hot and copper sky,

The bloody Sun, at noon,

Right up above the mast did stand,

No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day, 115

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

And the Albatross begins

to be avenged.

Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink; 120

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!

That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs 125

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. 130

A Spirit had followed

them; one of the invisible

inhabitants of this planet,

neither departed souls nor

angels; concerning whom

the learned Jew,

Josephus, and the

Platonic

Constantinopolitan,

Michael Psellus, may be

consulted. They are very

numerous, and there is no

climate or element without

one or more.

And some in dreams assuréd 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, 135

Was wither’d at the root;

We could not speak, no more than if

We had been choked with soot.

The shipmates in their

sore distress, would fain

throw the whole guilt on

the ancient Mariner: in

sign whereof they hang

the dead sea-bird round

his neck.

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks

Had I from old and young! 140

Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was hung.

PART III

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‘There passed a weary time. Each throat

Was parch’d, and glazed each eye.

A weary time! a weary time! 145

How glazed each weary eye!

The ancient Mariner

beholdeth a sign in the

element afar off.

When looking westward, I beheld

A something in the sky.

At first it seem’d a little speck,

And then it seem’d a mist; 150

It moved and moved, and took at last

A certain shape, I wist.

A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!

And still it near’d and near’d:

As if it dodged a water-sprite, 155

It plunged, and tack’d, and veer’d.

At its nearer approach, it

seemeth him to be a ship;

and at a dear ransom he

freeth his speech from the

bonds of thirst.

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,

We could nor laugh nor wail;

Through utter drought all dumb we stood!

I bit my arm, I suck’d the blood, 160

And cried, A sail! a sail!

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,

Agape they heard me call:

A flash of joy; Gramercy! they for joy did grin,

And all at once their breath drew in, 165

As they were drinking all.

And horror follows. For

can it be a ship that

comes onward without

wind or tide?

See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more!

Hither to work us weal—

Without a breeze, without a tide,

She steadies with upright keel! 170

The western wave was all aflame,

The day was wellnigh done!

Almost upon the western wave

Rested the broad, bright Sun;

When that strange shape drove suddenly 175

Betwixt us and the Sun.

It seemeth him but the

skeleton of a ship.

And straight the Sun was fleck’d with bars

(Heaven’s Mother send us grace!),

As if through a dungeon-grate he peer’d

With broad and burning face. 180

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Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)

How fast she nears and nears!

Are those her sails that glance in the Sun,

Like restless gossameres?

And its ribs are seen as

bars on the face of the

setting Sun. The SpectreWoman

and her Deathmate,

and no other on

board the skeleton ship.

Like vessel, like crew!

Are those her ribs through which the Sun 185

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?

Her lips were red, her looks were free, 190

Her locks were yellow as gold:

Her skin was as white as leprosy,

The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,

Who thicks man’s blood with cold.

Death and Life-in-Death

have diced for the ship’s

crew, and she (the latter)

winneth the ancient

Mariner.

The naked hulk alongside came, 195

And the twain were casting dice;

“The game is done! I’ve won! I’ve won!”

Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

No twilight within the

courts of the Sun.

The Sun’s rim dips; the stars rush out: 200

At one stride comes the dark;

With far-heard whisper, o’er the sea,

Off shot the spectre-bark.

We listen’d and look’d sideways up!

Fear at my heart, as at a cup, 205

My life-blood seem’d to sip!

The stars were dim, and thick the night,

The steersman’s face by his lamp gleam’d white;

From the sails the dew did drip—

At the rising of the Moon, Till clomb above the eastern bar 210

The hornéd Moon, with one bright star

Within the nether tip.

One after another, One after one, by the star-dogg’d Moon,

Too quick for groan or sigh,

Each turn’d his face with a ghastly pang, 215

And cursed me with his eye.

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. 220

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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!’

PART IV

The Wedding-Guest

feareth that a spirit is

talking to him;

‘I fear thee, ancient Mariner! 225

I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou art long, and lank, and brown,

As is the ribb’d sea-sand.

I fear thee and thy glittering eye,

And thy skinny hand so brown.’— 230

But the ancient Mariner

assureth him of his bodily

life, and proceedeth to

relate his horrible

penance.

‘Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest!

This body dropt not down.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide, wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on 235

My soul in agony.

He despiseth the

creatures of the calm.

The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things

Lived on; and so did I. 240

And envieth that they

should live, and so many

lie dead.

I look’d upon the rotting sea,

And drew my eyes away;

I look’d upon the rotting deck,

And there the dead men lay.

I look’d to heaven, and tried to pray; 245

But or ever a prayer had gusht,

A wicked whisper came, and made

My heart as dry as dust.

I closed my lids, and kept them close,

And the balls like pulses beat; 250

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky,

Lay like a load on my weary eye,

And the dead were at my feet.

But the curse liveth for

him in the eye of the dead

men.

The cold sweat melted from their limbs,

Nor rot nor reek did they: 255

The look with which they look’d on me

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Had never pass’d away.

An orphan’s curse would drag to hell

A spirit from on high;

But oh! more horrible than that 260

Is the curse in a dead man’s eye!

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,

And yet I could not die.

In his loneliness and

fixedness he yearneth

towards the journeying

Moon, and the stars that

still sojourn, yet still move

onward; and everywhere

the blue sky belongs to

them, and is their

appointed rest and their

native country and their

own natural homes, which

they enter unannounced,

as lords that are certainly

expected, and yet there is

a silent joy at their arrival.

The moving Moon went up the sky,

And nowhere did abide; 265

Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside—

Her beams bemock’d the sultry main,

Like April hoar-frost spread;

But where the ship’s huge shadow lay, 270

The charméd water burnt alway

A still and awful red.

By the light of the Moon

he beholdeth God’s

creatures of the great

calm.

Beyond the shadow of the ship,

I watch’d the water-snakes:

They moved in tracks of shining white, 275

And when they rear’d, the elfish light

Fell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watch’d their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, 280

They coil’d and swam; and every track

Was a flash of golden fire.

Their beauty and their

happiness.

O happy living things! no tongue

Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gush’d from my heart, 285

He blesseth them in his

heart.

And I bless’d them unaware:

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,

And I bless’d them unaware.

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

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‘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.

My lips were wet, my throat was cold,

My garments all were dank;

Sure I had drunken in my dreams,

And still my body drank. 305

I moved, and could not feel my limbs:

I was so light—almost

I thought that I had died in sleep,

And was a blesséd ghost.

He heareth sounds and

seeth strange sights and

commotions in the sky

and the element.

And soon I heard a roaring wind: 310

It did not come anear;

But with its sound it shook the sails,

That were so thin and sere.

The upper air burst into life;

And a hundred fire-flags sheen; 315

To and fro they were hurried about!

And to and fro, and in and out,

The wan stars danced between.

And the coming wind did roar more loud,

And the sails did sigh like sedge; 320

And the rain pour’d down from one black cloud;

The Moon was at its edge.

The thick black cloud was cleft, and still

The Moon was at its side;

Like waters shot from some high crag, 325

The lightning fell with never a jag,

A river steep and wide.

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

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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.

The body of my brother’s son

Stood by me, knee to knee:

The body and I pull’d at one rope,

But he said naught to me.’ 345

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,

And from their bodies pass’d.

Around, around, flew each sweet sound, 355

Then darted to the Sun;

Slowly the sounds came back again,

Now mix’d, now one by one.

Sometimes a-dropping from the sky

I heard the skylark sing; 360

Sometimes all little birds that are,

How they seem’d to fill the sea and air

With their sweet jargoning!

And now ’twas like all instruments,

Now like a lonely flute; 365

And now it is an angel’s song,

That makes the Heavens be mute.

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It ceased; yet still the sails made on

A pleasant noise till noon,

A noise like of a hidden brook 370

In the leafy month of June,

That to the sleeping woods all night

Singeth a quiet tune.

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 lonesome Spirit from

the South Pole carries on

the ship as far as the

Line, in obedience to the

angelic troop, but still

requireth vengeance.

Under the keel nine fathom deep,

From the land of mist and snow,

The Spirit slid: and it was he 380

That made the ship to go.

The sails at noon left off their tune,

And the ship stood still also.

The Sun, right up above the mast,

Had fix’d her to the ocean: 385

But in a minute she ‘gan stir,

With a short uneasy motion

—

Backwards and forwards half her length

With a short uneasy motion.

Then like a pawing horse let go, 390

She made a sudden bound:

It flung the blood into my head,

And I fell down in a swound.

The Polar Spirit’s fellow

–

demons, the invisible

inhabitants of the

element, take part in his

wrong; and two of them

relate, one to the other,

that penance long and

heavy for the ancient

Mariner hath been

accorded to the Polar

Spirit, who returneth

southward.

How long in that same fit I lay,

I have not to declare; 395

But ere my living life return’d,

I heard, and in my soul discern’d

Two voices in the air.

“Is it he?” quoth one, “is this the man?

By Him who died on cross, 400

With his cruel bow he laid full low

The harmless Albatross.

The Spirit who bideth by himself

In the land of mist and snow,

He loved the bird that loved the man 405

Who shot him with his bow.”

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The other was a softer voice,

As soft as honey-dew:

Quoth he, “The man hath penance done,

And penance more will do.” 410

PART VI

First Voice: ‘”But tell me, tell me! speak again,

Thy soft response renewing—

What makes that ship drive on so fast?

What is the Ocean doing?”

Second Voice: “Still as a slave before his lord, 415

The Ocean hath no blast;

His great bright eye most silently

Up to the Moon is cast—

If he may know which way to go;

For she guides him smooth or grim. 420

See, brother, see! how graciously

She looketh down on him.”

The Mariner hath been

cast into a trance; for the

angelic power causeth the

vessel to drive northward

faster than human life

could endure.

First Voice: “But why drives on that ship so fast,

Without or wave or wind?”

Second Voice: “The air is cut away before, 425

And closes from behind.

Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high!

Or we shall be belated:

For slow and slow that ship will go,

When the Mariner’s trance is abated.’ 430

The supernatural motion

is retarded; the Mariner

awakes, and his penance

begins anew.

I woke, and we were sailing on

As in a gentle weather:

‘Twas night, calm night, the Moon was high;

The dead men stood together.

All stood together on the deck, 435

For a charnel-dungeon fitter:

All fix’d on me their stony eyes,

That in the Moon did glitter.

The pang, the curse, with which they died,

Had never pass’d away: 440

I could not draw my eyes from theirs,

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Nor turn them up to pray.

The curse is finally

expiated.

And now this spell was snapt: once more

I viewed the ocean green,

And look’d far forth, yet little saw 445

Of what had else been seen—

Like one that on a lonesome road

Doth walk in fear and dread,

And having once turn’d round, walks on,

And turns no more his head; 450

Because he knows a frightful fiend

Doth close behind him tread.

But soon there breathed a wind on me,

Nor sound nor motion made:

Its path was not upon the sea, 455

In ripple or in shade.

It raised my hair, it fann’d my cheek

Like a meadow-gale of spring—

It mingled strangely with my fears,

Yet it felt like a welcoming. 460

Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship,

Yet she sail’d softly too:

Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze—

On me alone it blew.

And the ancient Mariner

beholdeth his native

country.

O dream of joy! is this indeed 465

The lighthouse top I see?

Is this the hill? is this the kirk?

Is this mine own countree?

We drifted o’er the harbour-bar,

And I with sobs did pray— 470

O let me be awake, my God!

Or let me sleep alway.

The harbour-bay was clear as glass,

So smoothly it was strewn!

And on the bay the moonlight lay, 475

And the shadow of the Moon.

The rock shone bright, the kirk no less

That stands above the rock:

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The moonlight steep’d in silentness

The steady weathercock. 480

The angelic spirits leave

the dead bodies,

And the bay was white with silent light

Till rising from the same,

Full many shapes, that shadows were,

In crimson colours came.

And appear in their own

forms of light.

A little distance from the prow 485

Those crimson shadows were:

I turn’d my eyes upon the deck—

O Christ! what saw I there!

Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,

And, by the holy rood! 490

A man all light, a seraph-man,

On every corse there stood.

This seraph-band, each waved his hand:

It was a heavenly sight!

They stood as signals to the land, 495

Each one a lovely light;

This seraph-band, each waved his hand,

No voice did they impart—

No voice; but O, the silence sank

Like music on my heart. 500

But soon I heard the dash of oars,

I heard the Pilot’s cheer;

My head was turn’d perforce away,

And I saw a boat appear.

The Pilot and the Pilot’s boy, 505

I heard them coming fast:

Dear Lord in Heaven! it was a joy

The dead men could not blast.

I saw a third—I heard his voice:

It is the Hermit good! 510

He singeth loud his godly hymns

That he makes in the wood.

He’ll shrieve my soul, he’ll wash away

The Albatross’s blood.

PART VII

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The Hermit of the Wood. ‘This Hermit good lives in that wood 515

Which slopes down to the sea.

How loudly his sweet voice he rears!

He loves to talk with marineres

That come from a far countree.

He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve— 520

He hath a cushion plump:

It is the moss that wholly hides

The rotted old oak-stump.

The skiff-boat near’d: I heard them talk,

“Why, this is strange, I trow! 525

Where are those lights so many and fair,

That signal made but now?”

Approacheth the ship with

wonder.

“Strange, by my faith!” the Hermit said—

“And they answer’d not our cheer!

The planks looked warp’d! and see those sails, 530

How thin they are and sere!

I never saw aught like to them,

Unless perchance it were

Brown skeletons of leaves that lag

My forest-brook along; 535

When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow,

And the owlet whoops to the wolf below,

That eats the she-wolf’s young.”

“Dear Lord! it hath a fiendish look—

(The Pilot made reply) 540

I am a-fear’d”—”Push on, push on!”

Said the Hermit cheerily.

The boat came closer to the ship,

But I nor spake nor stirr’d;

The boat came close beneath the ship, 545

And straight a sound was heard.

The ship suddenly

sinketh.

Under the water it rumbled on,

Still louder and more dread:

It reach’d the ship, it split the bay;

The ship went down like lead. 550

The ancient Mariner is

saved in the Pilot’s boat.

Stunn’d by that loud and dreadful sound,

Which sky and ocean smote,

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Like one that hath been seven days drown’d

My body lay afloat;

But swift as dreams, myself I found 555

Within the Pilot’s boat.

Upon the whirl, where sank the ship,

The boat spun round and round;

And all was still, save that the hill

Was telling of the sound. 560

I moved my lips—the Pilot shriek’d

And fell down in a fit;

The holy Hermit raised his eyes,

And pray’d where he did sit.

I took the oars: the Pilot’s boy, 565

Who now doth crazy go,

Laugh’d loud and long, and all the while

His eyes went to and fro.

“Ha! ha!” quoth he, “full plain I see

The Devil knows how to row.” 570

And now, all in my own countree,

I stood on the firm land!

The Hermit stepp’d forth from the boat,

And scarcely he could stand.

The ancient Mariner

earnestly entreateth the

Hermit to shrieve him; and

the penance of life falls on

him.

“O shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man!” 575

The Hermit cross’d his brow.

“Say quick,” quoth he, “I bid thee say—

What manner of man art thou?”

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.

And ever and anon

throughout his future life

an agony constraineth

him to travel from land to

land;

Since then, at an uncertain hour,

That agony returns:

And till my ghastly tale is told, 585

This heart within me burns.

I pass, like night, from land to land;

I have strange power of speech;

That moment that his face I see,

I know the man that must hear me: 590

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Page 16 of 17

To him my tale I teach.

What loud uproar bursts from that door!

The wedding-guests are there:

But in the garden-bower the bride

And bride-maids singing are: 595

And hark the little vesper bell,

Which biddeth me to prayer!

O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been

Alone on a wide, wide sea:

So lonely ’twas, that God Himself 600

Scarce seeméd there to be.

O sweeter than the marriage-feast,

‘Tis sweeter far to me,

To walk together to the kirk

With a goodly company!— 605

To walk together to the kirk,

And all together pray,

While each to his great Father bends,

Old men, and babes, and loving friends,

And youths and maidens gay! 610

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.’

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,

Whose beard with age is hoar, 620

Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest

Turn’d from the bridegroom’s door.

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.

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This resource is in the public domain.