Analysis of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

What is the most famous line of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

“Water, water, every where/Nor any drop to drink”

What famous concept originates from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

“albatross around my neck”

What part of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” features the alabtross hung around the mariner;s neck?

Part II

The mariner says what is hung around his neck instead of what?

An albatross is hung rather than the cross

What does the albatross around the Mariner's neck symbolize?

The curse that the mariner’s decision to kill the bird brought upon the ship

What have allowed “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” to remain widely read and studied centuries after its publishing?

Its famous moments, haunting story and captivating metrical construction

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” serves as a _________ illustration of how transformative journeys have transformed what?

Paradigmatic; the backbone of some of the most enduring artistic works throughout history

The journey in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”is transformative for who?

The person who undertook it but also those who hear about it

What is the meter of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

Ballad measure

What does ballad measure featured?

Quatrains in abcb rhyme scheme with iambic tetrameter in 1st and 3rd lines and iambic trimet in the 2nd and 4th lines

What is the rhyme scheme of the majority of the quatrains in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

abcb

What quatrain in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” features no rhyme at all?

“' ‘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

How many quatrains in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” feature ABAB rhyme schemes?

seven

What are the rhyme schemes within the quatrains of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

ABAB, AABB, ABBA

How many quatrains in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” feature AABB rhyme schemes?

Four

How many quatrains in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” feature ABBA rhyme schemes?

One

What words are fully capitalized in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

ALBATROSS, DEATH, STORM-BLAST, LIFE-IN-DEATH

How many 5 line stanzas aerin “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

18

How many 6 line stanzas are in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

17

How many 9 line stanzas are in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

One

In a ballad measure the lines which rhyme are compsoed of what meter?

Iambic trimeter

Iambic trimeter is used in what lines of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

2 and 4

Iambic tetrameter is used in what lines of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

1 and 3

What is iambic tetrameter?

4 measures of iambic feet (da-DUM)

What areiambic feet?

A 2 syllable unit where the first is unstressed and the second is stressed (da-DUM)

What is iambic trimeter?

Three measures of iambic feet (da-DUM)

What are sestinas?

Six-lien stanzas

What do the sestinas in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” emphasize>?

Significance or intensisity of a scene

What are two notable sestinas within “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

When he describes the incoming storm in part I or when he details the appearance of the nightmarish ship “Life-in-death“ in part 3

What do shorter stanzas in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” accomplish?

Produce a sense of shocka and suddenness

What is a notable shorter stanza in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

When the mariner believes he sees a ship on the horizon at the start of part 3
“When looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky”

How many stanzas in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” are shorter than 4 lines?

One

Who made an engraving for a version of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

Gustave Dore

Gustave Dore made a version of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in what genre?

Engraving

When Gustave Dore’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” made?

1876

Variations in length and structure of stanzas in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” are accompanied with what?

Metrical substitutions nof spondaic feet rather than iambic ones

What are spondaic feet?

2 stressed syllables

What feeling do spondaic feet create?

A slower, longer feeling

What notable scene utilizes spondaic feet within “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

When Coleridge describes the chilled blood of the crew as the witness the emergence of Life-In-death

What two lines describe the emergence of Life-in-death?

“The nightmare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,
Who thicks man’s blood with cold.”

The form and variations to the “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” create what?

The poem’s emotional and moral effects

The Mariner's narrative is meaning to impart what?

A moral lesson H

How does “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” begin?

With he mariner now old and gray stopping a wedding-guest on his way to a wedding reception. The guest tries to ignore him but is inexplicably drawn to the man and his story and sits to hear the tale.

What occurs after the opening of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

The mariner recounts how while a sailor, he shot and killed an albatross that had been flying nearby an act his shipmates first condemn and then, after suggesting the bird had brought poor weather, excuse.

What happens after the mariner kills the albatross in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

The ocean winds disappear and the shi is immobilized at sea and the crew begin to fall sick from dehydration and exhaustion and they begin to lose hope.

What does the descent of the crew into madness culminate with in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

The appearance of the horrifying ship '“LIFE-IN-DEATH”

What does the ship carrying death in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” seem to be?

A vessel carrying death spirits

Is it clear whether the events in the poem and the supernatural ship are hallucinations?

No, many events in the poem are equally ambiguous

Whatt does the appearence of the nightmarish ship cause?

All the crew but the mariner to drop dead

What does the mariner see as he lies on the ship surrounded by corpses of crewmates?

Water-snakes

What lines feature the mariner’s moment of clarity where he opens his heart to 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 acknowledgement of the beauty and moral worth of water snakes marks a _________ ____________in the mariners journey

A turning point

Gustave Dore made 2 notable engravings of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” depicting what two scenes?

The frozen crew and the albatross and also a sailor holding onto ratlines in the crow’s nest of a sailing ship

What happens after the mariner acknowledges the beauty and moral worth of the water snakes in terms of the general plot?

Spirits appear around the ship and re-animate the corpses of the dead sailors and the ship begins to move again

What does the mariner says pushes the boat onward?

Not the wind but “Moved onward from beneath”

What supernatural events occur after the boat begins moving again?

The mariner hears 2 spirits discussing his fate including the fact ath although he made progress he must continue to suffer and atone for killing the albatross

How does the poem end?

The mariners rescued from his ship and returns to land. The journey transformed him and he has survived but rognizes his purpose is to tell his story to those who need to hear it.

What compells the mariner to tell his story?

A powerful inner force; “this frame of mine… which forced me to begin my tale” and “at an uncertain hour, that agony returns and till my ghastly tale is told this heart within me burns”

Does the mariner know who to tell his story to?

No

What stanza in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” describes the mariners need to tell his story to people he doesn't initially know?

“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
To him my tale I teach”

How many lines is the stanza which describes the mariners traveling and act of deciding who to tell his story to? Why is it this # of lines?

5 lines; to emphasize the imperative nature of the mariners duty

What truths resulted from the Mariner's transformation?

The recognition that killing the albatross violated a foundational principle of the world, that love and respect is deserved for “All things both great and small”

How does the wedding guest react to the mariners story?

He is deeply disturbed by the mariners experience and how his worldview has been irrevocably altered

What is “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’s” final stanza?"

“He went like oine that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man,

H rose the morrow morn.”

The wedding guest is both _______ and ______ as a result of him learning the truth because learning the truth caused what?>

Sadder and wiser; An increased moral responsibility and understanding

The transformation within “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” exemplifies what about Coleridge?

His lifelong interest in fundamental truths and our ability to identify and appropriately respond to them

Who writes that Coleridge throughout his works demonstrated an “undaunted determination always to try…”

Kelvin Everest

What did Kelvin Everest write about Coleridge in his lectures, essays and poems like “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

That he always demonstrated an “undaunted determination always to try to understand things in terms of a absolute philosophical questions of origins and ultimate destination”

How many stanzas are in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?”

143 stanzas

Both the ancient mariner and the wedding guest as a result of the story/hearing it have unddergone what?

A transformation by the encounter with transcendent truths about their existance and their place in the world, truths that opened their minds AND burdened their souls