

He says that there were so many mariners lying on board. Then continuing his fearful tale, the Ancient Mariner tells that after the death of his fellow mariners, he was left alone, that is he lived all alone on board on the wide ocean. He adds that he did not die with other mariners at the time, implying that he is a living man, not a ghost. The Wedding-Guest says that I am afraid of you, your sparkling eyes, and your skinny hand with so brown complexion.” Thereupon the Ancient Mariner tells him (the Wedding-Guest) not to be afraid of him.
#MARINER WRITE. SKIN#
emaciated hand, and also his tall, lean, body whose skin is wrinkled and brown like the ripple-marked sea-sand. He adds that he is afraid of his skinny i.e. So addressing him, the frightened Wedding-guest tells him that his appearance strikes great fear into him. In this part of the poem, the Wedding-guest again enters the scene and says at this point of the story that the Ancient Mariner looks like a man possessed by a ghost. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 4: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Analysis
#MARINER WRITE. FREE#
Please feel free to view any of the other parts that have been analysed on :

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a particular long poem, split into seven sections. Personification is another technique readers can find throughout ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ Coleridge personifies the water, death, and the albatross at various moments in the poem. Repetition also occurs more broadly in the poem with Coleridge’s use and reuse of refrains, images, and words that begin and end lines (examples of anaphora and epistrophe). For example, “slid” and “soul” in line four of the first stanza of this section. For example, “My lips were wet, my throat was cold, / My garments all were dank.”Īlliteration is a type of repetition that’s concerned with the use and reuse of the same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. Without it, readers might leave the poem interested or unmoved by what they read. The latter is one of the most important techniques a poet can use in their work. Hence, it is a ballad although not a folk-ballad.Ĭoleridge makes use of several literary devices in this part of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’ as well as in all the other sections. These include but are not limited to personification, alliteration, repetition, and imagery. The poem contains all these characteristics. There is a sudden change of action besides music and rhythm. The language is simple but there is plenty of repetition and use of archaic words. The ballad is a narrative song-poem, usually relating a single, dramatic incident or story, in a form suitable for singing or rhythmical chanting.įolk ballads often have sudden dramatic beginnings, are written in the form of a dialogue usually between the narrator and the listeners as well as between characters. a poem written in the form and style of a folk ballad which is usually written by an anonymous person. ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is a lyrical ballad i.e. The rhyme scheme is usually either ABAB or ABABAB but there are some alterations, for example, some stanzas rhyme ABCCB or ABAAB. The odd lines are usually in tetrameter while the even lines are in trimeter, features of ballad stanzas. But, some reach as many as nine lines in length. The text is in short ballad stanzas that are usually four or six lines long. Eventually, alone on the ship, he faces solitude as his pennace. The Mariner spends the rest of the poem paying for the one, great sin of killing the bird. It’s then that their little bit of luck runs out and they face many stanzas of hardship. At various points, it appears that nature is on their side, except, of course, after the Mariner makes the mistake of kill the albatross. Throughout the poem, the poet uses nature as the controlling force in the Mariner’s life, and those of his fellow men. Finally, he’s able to pray at the end of this section and the albatross falls off his neck and into the ocean.Ĭoleridge engages with themes of sins/forgiveness and nature in ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ The nature imagery in ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is impossible to avoid. The bodies around him don’t decay and time passes. He’s surrounded by dead bodies and the ocean and feels quite sorry for himself. The Mariner goes back to the story and tells the Wedding Guest that solitude is the price he has to pay for his sins. He was the only one to live through the ordeal. The Mariner assures him this isn’t the case. He expresses his concern that the mariner is also dead and is telling him the story as a ghost. The Wdding Guest interrupts the story when he hears about the deaths of all the crewmen onboard the ship. The fourth part of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge the speaker describes suffering alone, watched by the dead bodies of his fellow crewmen.
