The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem written by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797-1798 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads (1798). It is the longest significant poem that Coleridge wrote.

Related Topics:
English - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - 1797 - 1798 - Lyrical Ballads

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Written in language that imitates the Anglo-Scots border ballads (which had only recently been introduced to the greater English public), it relates the supernatural events experienced by a mariner on a long sea voyage. The ship is driven to Antarctica by a fierce storm. A good-luck omen, an albatross, appears and leads them out of the threatening land of ice; the albatross is later shot by the Mariner with his crossbow. This crime arouses the wrath of supernatural spirits who pursue the ship; an initially favorable south wind sends the ship into waters where it is becalmed.

Related Topics:
Antarctica - Albatross - Supernatural

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"Day after day, day after day,

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We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

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As idle as a painted ship

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Upon a painted ocean.

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Water, water, everywhere,

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And all the boards did shrink;

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Water, water, everywhere,

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Nor any drop to drink."

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Tormented by thirst, the other members of the crew hang the albatross around the mariner's neck as a sign of his guilt. Eventually, in an eerie passage, the ship encounters a ghostly vessel. Onboard are DEATH (a skeleton) and LIFE-IN-DEATH (a pale, deathly-fair woman), who are playing dice for the souls of the crew. DEATH wins them all except the Mariner. One by one the crew dies, but the Mariner lives on, seeing for seven days and nights the curse in the eyes of the men who have died. Eventually, the Mariner's curse is lifted when he sees sea creatures swimming in the water and blesses them in his heart; the albatross falls off of his neck and his guilt is partially expiated. The bodies of the crew, possessed by good spirits, rise again and steer the ship back home, where it sinks in a whirlpool, leaving only the Mariner behind. In penance for his deed, the Mariner is forced to wander the earth and tell his story, and teach a lesson to those he meets:

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He prayeth best, who loveth best

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All things both great and small;

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For the dear God who loveth us,

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He made and loveth all.

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The poem may have been inspired by James Cook's second voyage of exploration (1772-1775) of the south seas and the Pacific Ocean; Coleridge's tutor William Wales was astronomer on the HMS Resolution, Cook's flagship and had a strong relationship with Cook. On his second voyage Cook plunged repeatedly below the Antarctic circle to determine whether the fabled great southern continent existed.

Related Topics:
James Cook - 1772 - 1775 - Pacific Ocean - William Wales - HMS Resolution

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When William Wordsworth and Coleridge planned the scheme for their joint collection Lyrical Ballads, it was agreed that Wordsworth would contribute poems describing common life and Coleridge would contribute poems on supernatural themes. It is useful to keep this in mind when examining this poem.

Related Topics:
William Wordsworth - Lyrical Ballads

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The poem received mixed reviews from the critics, and Coleridge was once told by the publisher that most of the book's sales were to sailors who thought it was a naval songbook. Coleridge made several modifications to the poem over the years. In the second edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800), he replaced many of the archaic words. In 1817, in the Sibylline Leaves, he added the marginal glosses.

Related Topics:
1800 - 1817 - Sibylline Leaves

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The poem contains many memorable and often quoted passages (see above.)

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