The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.

The Rime of ancient mariner is one of the best known classical ballads written in English. Coleridge tries to make the supernatural look natural. He uses the ballad stanza of 4 lines with the 2nd in rhyming with the 4th to tell the story. To lend credibility to the narrative, he makes the old mariner tell his story. He is compelled to tell the story of his suffering to someone to regain his peace. 1-4: The speaker is one of the wedding guests. The extremely old sailor (mariner) stops the speaker. He asks the mariner with long grey beard and brightly shining eyes why he wanted to stop him. The ancient mariner wanted the guest to stay and listen to him. 5-8: He further says that the marriage party is eagerly waiting for the guests and he is the member of the family. (The wedding guest is impatient and doesnt want to be detained any more). The guests have arrived. The banquets are laid out and he can hear the happy noise from there. One of the three- Coleridge uses three instead of 2 or 4 as 3 is considered to be magical number. 3 enhance the supernatural touch. 9-12: He i.e. the mariner holds shim with his skinny hand. He said that there was a ship. The wedding guest asks him to leave his hand. He addresses him as grey bearded mad man, at once his hand dropped. 13-16: But the old man holds the guest with his glittering eyes. The guest was mesmerized and he stood still and listened like a three year old child (simile.. (when listens to a fairytale)). The mariner had got what he wanted. 17-20: The wedding guest sat on a stone (signifies complete surrender of the guest to the will of the mariner). He was completely mesmerized by the glittering eyes of the mariner. It hypnotized the guest to listen to his tale.

21-24 When the ship set said people cheered and the ship cleared the harbour. The sailors dropped the sail .the ship passed below the church, the hill and the top of the light house. 25-28: The mariner says that the sun came up from the left(as the ship was now sailing southward.) he(sun)came out of the sea(personification) it seemed so because there was water all around. It was shining brightly because the ship had reaches the equator or was near it. It set into the sea in the right. The narrator is compelled to narrate the story because he is being plagued by the spirit of the albatross, he had killed. He is relieved from his agony when he relates his story to someone. 29-32: The sun rose higher and higher till it reached over the mast at noon (ship was near the equator). The wedding guest beats his breast because he heard the loud bassoon.(a musical instrument). He is helpless. He was getting rather restless and was impatient to join the wedding beast but he could not move away from his place. He is angry and desperate so he beats his breast. 33-36: The bride has arrived into the hall with quick steps. She was very beautiful and her cheeks red just like a rose(simile and alliteration). The singers and musicians went before her nodding their heads. 37-40: The wedding guest beats his breast as the bride has also arrived which means that the marriage ceremony would start soon but he was still standing with the mariner the bright eyed mariner kept his spell and he was helpless and so mariner continued and thus spoke on. Bright eyed mariner (refrain). 41-43: Then came a very powerful storm-blast (personification). It is compared to a tyrant who is cruel, severe and harsh. He (storm) pushed the ship towards the south pole (metaphor)

44-49. The masts were sloping because the ship had to bend forward due to the heavy pressure of the storm from behind. The prow (the front portion of the ship) dipped forward. The ship his compared to a man who is pursed by his enemy who is yelling and his shadow falls on him. The ship bends its head forward to gain more speed. *44-47. With sloping masts his head. This is an e.g. of personification. 50-53. The ship reached the south-pole. There was mist and snow. It was extremely cold (wondrous cold). The ice-bergs came floating on the sea. {Ice-bergs were as high as the mast and as green as emerald.} Simile. 54-57. Through the floating pieces of floating ice-bergs and the steep ice-bergs came light sad but gentle light. Neither men nor beasts were seen. Only the ice was seen all around the ship. {The wedding guest is absorbed in the story.} 57-60. There was ice here and there. The ice was all around (repetition to emphasize that the ship was struck in the region of ice). Driven by the storm the ice-bergs crash against each other and crack and produce different kinds of noises (Onomatopoeia-cracked, growled, roared, howled) as persons cry in a fainting fit. 61-64. At last came an Albatross through the fog. They were so happy it seemed as if it had been a Christian soul (metaphor). They welcomed it in gods name. It is called a Christian soul because it had come in such a time when the ship and the mariners were in trouble. The weather improved after its arrival and the ship could finally move. 65-67. It ate the food the sailors gave and was never eaten by the Albatross. It flew around the ship. The ice split into pieces with a thundering sound. So the helmsman (the person who steers a ship) steer the ship out of the ice-bergs safely. Thus the arrival of the Albatross proved auspicious to the mariner.

70-73. Then a good south wind started blowing behind the ship. The Albatross continued too follow. Whenever the mariner shouted at the Albatross, to take its food or to play, it responded. 74-77. The Albatross used to come in mist or cloudy weather and sat on the mist or sail. For nine evenings the bird perched on the ship. The poet has used the word nine as it is associated with prayer and supernatural. The figure gives a supernatural touch. All night the moon-light shone through the fog-smoke. 78-81. The wedding-guest prayed that god might save him from the evil sprit that tortured him (mariner) because suddenly the expression on the mariners face changed. The guest asks the mariner why he was looking so pale and alarmed. The mariner confessed that he had killed the Albatross with his bow.

Part-II.
82-85. As the ship was moving towards the north the sun rose from the right and set in the west. 86-89. The good south wind still blew behind but no Albatross came to play with them or to have food. {Camehollo-refrain}. 90-95. The sailors told the ancient mariner that he had done a hellish thing and that his act would bring them sorrow and unhappiness. The called him an unfortunate person. He killed the bird that bought a good south wind form behind the ship. 96-101. All these days when the sun rose it was dim and red but today with the death of the Albatross the sun was neither red nor dim. Like the head of god the glorious (glorious because the sun was shining bright and cleared away the fog and mist) sun rose (simile). Their minds changed and the said that the mariner had killed the bird which had bought the fog and mist and it was right to kill the Albatross which had bought the fog and mist.

102-105. The fair breeze blew and they were moving with a very high speed due to which bubbles were formed. The furrow followed free (Alliteration). The deep lines were being made freely behind the ship. The sailors were the first to enter the silent sea. 106-109. The breeze stopped blowing so the sails dropped down. It was sad could be because of the situation was miserable as the ship was stranded in the mid ocean without wind or waves to help it to move. They spoke only to break the silence of the sea. Down dropth dropth down. The repetition of the hard sound d comes like the blow of the hammer and suggests something harsh and unpleasant. 110-113. The sky had become hot like copper-Metaphor. The Sun was burning at noon like the color of blood-Metaphor. At noon the sun stood just over the mast. It dint appear bigger than the moon. 114-117. Day after day their ship was struck (Day after day-repetition It conveys the idea of prolonged stagnation, immobility, loneliness and boredom). The stillness of the ship has been compared to the stillness of the ship in water in a painting (simile). This poetic device has been used to describe the stationary ship and its in-ability to move. 118-121. There was water all around but there was not a drop to drink. The boards of the ship got shrunk. The sailors could not drink a drop of water as the sea water is unfit for drinking. 122-125. The very ocean started to rot. The killing of the innocent Albatross brought everything under a curse. The sea became muddy and started stinking with all its slimy creatures. O Christ that such a situation would ever come was not imagined by anyone. It was horrible to see the muddy creatures crawling on the logs of the slimy sea. The feeling of the awful, horror, torment and anguish lead us to the pity of the ____ of sufferers.

126-129. Everywhere the death fires danced all night in different dance forms. The water seemed to be burning as the phosphorescent light was coming from the fire fish. It was the changing colors like the oil boiled by the witches. The poet achieves a supernatural effect by mentioning the three colors-green, blue and white because it is associated with black magic. Some sailors were sure that in their dreams they saw the sprit (the spirit of the dead Albatross) tortured them to take revenge and bring them to justice. The narrator feels that they are being tormented because they were dying of thirst in the middle of water. Their ship had become stationary. The water of the rutting sea boiled presenting a horrible and hateful sight. 133-136. The sailors who were the victims of the utter drought had parched tongues. The dry parched lips have been compared to the dry roots of the plants. They could not speak their in-ability to speak and has been compared to the mouth of a person who is unable to speak as his mouth is filled with soot. 137-140. It was a very bad day. The sailor had to face evil looks from everyone. The sailors hung the dead Albatross instead of the holy cross around the mariners neck. It signifies that sin or an evil act committed once plagues the doer for ever. They wanted to make him repent for killing the bird and to constantly remind him that he had killed the bird.

*----*----*