The Rime of The Ancient Mariner by Coleridge. A poem of redemption. One of The Gems of English Literature.
74Illustrations by Gustave Dore to The Rime of The Ancient Mariner.
An appreciation of a truly great poem.
"It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?"
With these four lines, telling you of how a guest on his way to a wedding is accosted by an aged seaman, one of the most famous poems written in the English language begins.
The poem "The Rime of The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge grabs the reader from the very start. Of all the poetry that has ever been written this masterpiece must be one of the most compelling. The lesson of redemption, which is contained within this story of the seaman who kills the innocent albatross, resonates deeply within any person who reads the poem. If any piece of verse can be said to be truly inspired, this is it.
The poem was written at a time, the early nineteenth century, when people were fascinated in reading the accounts of the voyages of Captain Cook, and those of The Bounty. It perfectly describes the feelings of isolation that must sometimes have been felt by those pioneering mariners, when they were becalmed in the middle of a vast ocean in a small wooden ship.
The really great thing about "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is it's sheer readability, and the cracking pace of the dramatic story that drags you into the world of the sailor on his "painted ship upon a painted ocean"
The descriptions of the Polar Regions, where the ship strays to, have not been bettered in any portrayal since.
"And through the drifts the snowy clifts
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:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!"
It is while the ship is leaving this world of icy magnificence that the crew are joined by an albatross that accompanies them on their journey through the unending oceans. There was a belief then, and there probably still is now, among sailors that the albatross is the friend of mariners. It was considered to be great bad fortune to kill one. But for some weird reason, not gone into by Coleridge, the ancient mariner shoots the bird with his crossbow.
This is where all the problems commence.
The ship became becalmed in the middle of the ocean. The sun beat down on the crew, and they all cursed the mariner for killing the albatross. The sheer horror of their situation is portrayed in these memorable lines.
"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,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."
The crew hung the dead albatross around the neck of the killer, as a constant reminder of the sin that he had committed. He was unable to remove his grisly trophy.
The horror reaches a ghastly climax when a dreadful ship carrying "Death" comes to claim the sailors, all except for the ancient mariner. They all die with a curse on their lips, for their fellow, that has brought them to this end.
The unfortunate survivor can neither die, nor pray for forgiveness. The bodies of all his companions fix him permanently with unforgiving stares. The sense of desolation that must be felt by someone almost maddened by guilt, and loneliness is perfectly described in the lines that follow.
When the ancient mariner blesses the beauty and grace of a vision of sea serpents, his path to forgiveness begins, and the albatross finally falls from his neck.
"O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.
The self same moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea."
It is then that, according to the poem, The Divine starts to take a hand in the working of salvation for our ancient mariner. The dead crew are reanimated, and they start to work on the sails and the rudder, to drive the ship forward. At the end of each day, the blessed spirits, which had inhabited the bodies of the dead seamen, gather by the mast to sing hymns to God.
There then follows a dialogue between a spirit that had been following the ship since it's sojourn in the icy regions, and another that probably represented the voice of God. The second spirit decides that the mariner has repented, and should be forgiven.
Eventually the ship reaches the native country of the ancient mariner, and he can see the church on the hill, where he used to worship. He thanks God for his deliverance.
When the pilot rows out to escort the ship into port, it sinks like a stone, but the mariner is rescued. He confesses his sins to a blessed hermit, and is finally forgiven.
But he is fated ever after to retell his story to certain people, and to convey this message to all who might hear him.
"He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us
He made and loveth all."
I will end my appreciation of "The Rime of The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge by quoting the verse that of all lines in poetry is perhaps the most graphic. I can never get these out of my memory, and I love them with an appalled fascination. I try not to remember them when I am alone at night in the dark.
"Like one that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread."
It truly is a brilliant poem. If you do nothing else today, find it, and read it.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/151/151-h/151-h.htm
Explore the joy of more great literature.
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-wonderful-novels-of-The-Bronte-Sisters-Not-Wikipedia-or-Facebook
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-magic-of-Charles-Dickens-Not-Wikipedia
Orson Welles brings the story to life here.
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Poetry is beautiful.
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Hi Wesman.
I think The Mariner is probably representative of all of us, in our need for redemption, and affirmation, and not necessarily in a strictly religious sense.
Killing the albatross is kind of the equivalent of Adam eating the forbidden fruit, although it can be likened to the kind of things we all do in our lives, that have bad consequences that we need to recover from.
I love "The Rime" because it is just such an amazingly graphic read. It's like a poem that is better than poetry, if that makes sense.
I'd not thought of your analogies before, but certainly they are relevant, whether S.T.C. recognized them or not.
It would be very difficult for someone to improve upon something that Orson Wells participated in. Excellent Video!
Hi Wesman.
Coleridge is said to have meant the poem to be understood on two different levels, at different points in his life.
When it was published in 1798, he was more sympathetic to the Wordsworth view of nature being the "all in all", so he wanted it to be understood as a hymn to nature and conservation. When it was reissued in 1817, with sidenotes, he had diverged in his opinions from his old friend William Wordsworth, and the sidenotes gave the poem an altogether more orthodox christian meaning.
Either way it is just a brilliant read.
Orson Welles was such an amazing actor. He really brings The Ancient Mariner to life. I,m glad that I stumbled across that brilliant video.
Thank you for this. I am going to read this poem today :) I have such gaps in my reading, and I think it's about I started to make myself well read. I will start today - thanks for giving me a nudge!
Your hub has made it impossible for me to NOT consider reading this poem. And many more.
Linda.
Thanks for visiting Lady Wordsmith.
I have just got up here, and for a second, I thought that Wordsworth had commented on my hub. I need another coffee.
I'm sure you will enjoy "The Rime of The Ancient Mariner".
It has some brilliant lines.
I really have to agree with your analysis. Today we fly over the oceans in less than a day for the entire Pacific, but in those days, it was like what our space journeys would be like now if we plied the void to distant planets and stars. Both are fraught with peril. I can imagine a deep space voyage that can have a lot of similarity to the Ancient Mariner. On a more local level, the "Albatross around one's neck" is a symbol of a curse, showing how deep and influential the poem is.
Thanks syzygyastro . It certainly is a poem that it is hard to forget.
I can think of few lines of poetry, christopher, that have as lasting an impact as some of Coleridge's work. 'Water, water everywhere ..." is one of those memorable lines remembered by most of us since we first encountered it in grade school. Thanks for the well-written rewind.
Thats what I love most about that poem, drbj, the memorable lines. My favourite still has to be the one about "the frightful fiend". It always makes me shiver.
I think, because I am Irish, I am more ghost concious.
When one reads the words of the gifted, one feels quite unjustified in trying to write:
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
I am so envious of those words.
BUT
I also love the lines that scare you :-))
Thanks for the supportive comments De Greek. It's one of those poems that you could read over and over.
I believe the poem would make an awesome animated short.
ruffridyer.
Thanks for reading. I believe you are right there.
Hi, christopher, how did I miss this one? I always wanted to know the story behind the Ancient Mariner. I did know bits and pieces but this really brought it to life, and the video was great, now I know where 'water water everywhere nor a drop to drink' comes from! really good, I love your explanations inbetween the verse, totally explained it, rated up! cheers nell
I'm glad that you did find it Nell. "The Rime" is just one of those great pieces of writing that scores on every level. It is exciting as well as deep, and it has some of the most memorable lines in all English literature.
I hope you read the whole poem. It's just brilliant.
Just came back to say I am going to look out for it now, thanks!
I feel sure you will enjoy it.
Wesman Todd Shaw 13 months ago
That truly is a timeless work of art. I loved the old and middle English stories that had bits of harsh reality and the supernatural inside.
Is the Mariner an Adam archetype, maybe? I'm not sure.
I almost joined the Navy right out of high school - and I think that I probably should have. I let my Mother talk me out of it instead. I was mostly fascinated with the Ships and the technology. I can hardly imagine being out in a Sea of Blue for months at a time.
Great Write up. I doubt that many youth's appreciate those classics so much now. I do recognize that I've an ocean of pessimism though.
I always did very well in English and Literature classes - and the fact that Iron Maiden had done a song of the same title made this one a double Cool for a land loving Texas youth.