Changes in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
In the 1798 and the 1817 text of the, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, There are certain changes. Changes that effect the poem and the way that the reader sees the poem. Some of these changes include reading devices called glosses. There are many reasons for the glosses to be put into the poem. One of the reasons is to help the reader interpret lines in the poem that can be confusing. These glosses are a brief interpretation of the stanza, so that the reader will understand it the way that Coleridge intended them to. An example of this is:
I woke, and we were sailing on
As in a gentle weather
'Twas night, calm night, the moon was high:
The dead man stand together
The gloss reads as follows
The supernatural motion is retarded
The mariner awakes, and his penance
Begins anew (1817; 61)
The reader might not understand how to interpret the stanza; they could interpret however they wanted to. Coleridge placed the glosses in so that the reader would understand the Mariner woke up and realized that he had done his penance. These...
The main theme of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem is to learn from your mistakes. After telling his tale to the Wedding Guest, the Ancient Mariner realized that the murder of the Albatross was a mistake and lived a life of penance. The act of murder was an impulsive act because the Mariner felt threatened by the Albatross their actions. The deaths of both birds brought about memories from both the Ancient Mariner and Hagar which they shared with other people, the Wedding Guest and Murray F. Lees. These memories help them to realize the mistakes they made. Through their own personal recollections, the Ancient Mariner and Hagar both achieved a better understanding of their lives and in turn were able to die with a sense of contentment and relief.
Stillinger, Jack. ~~Coleridge & Textual Instability: The Multiple Versions of the Major Poems~~. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
In the first five stanzas, the author discusses the already submerged ship. ?Stilly couches she,? describes the ship resting on the bottom of the ocean. The lines, ?Jewels in joy designed?lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind?, point out the waste of money, technology and craftsmanship going down with the ship which is consistently mentioned in these stanzas. In the next six stanzas he describes the iceberg and the ship meeting together as one in destiny.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Part 1 a old man stops one man out of three that were walking down the street to go to a wedding the man is a relation of the married the man tries to get away but the old man grabs the man with his skinny hand the man is held there by the glitter of the old man's eye the man is listening intently "Like a three years' child" the old man has the man's attention the wedding guest sat down on a stone the mariner went on with his story the boat was anchored by a kirk KIRK- church EFTSOONS - unhand me ship was sailing south because sun came up on the left side of the boat they sailed closer to the equator every day because the sun came overhead MINSTRIL - musicians the bride has started to walk down the isle and the music is playing the old man carries on there was a storm at the equator the storm drove them to the south pole the storm was very strong they went through mist and then it started to snow it became very cold they went by very large chunks of ice floating through the water (icebergs) there was nothing but ice and snow and there was no animals, just ice an albatross flew over after a few days the men were happy to see it because they needed hope the men fed it the ice broke in front of the boat and then they sailed through the ice to safety a good south wind helped them sail north the bird followed them KEN - know something NE'ER - never VESPERS -days the bird stayed with them for nine days the ancient mariner shot the albatross with his cross bow HOLLOW - called albatross PART II burst of sea - ship wake there was no more bird following the boat (the felt alone again) they ran out of food the people on the boat cursed at the mariner for killing their omen of good luck the wind had stopped Gods own head - sun averred - swear, agree to they thought that the bird had brought the fog because the fog had cleared after the bird died the breeze stopped and the boat stopped the sky was clear and it was very hot they were at the equator because the sun at noon was above the mast they stayed there for a few days without wind it was like they were a painting "Water, water, everywhere," they could not see anything
The third stanza starts using the technique of involving outside interpretation to evaluate Coleridges situation '' So everyone used to wonder why...'' this is primarily used to include the reader in the poem and make them feel a part of the drama. This is also the stanza that the reader is enlightened to Coleridges dilemma, ''Coleridges puny boss, a little white bag of bones, frowned at Coleridge and sneered at him'', it later says ''when that skimpy piece of man meat called Coleridge a sorry nigger, Coleridge kept his lips closed, sealed, jammed tight'' this shows size is irrelevant in this battle as obviously Coleridge could harm his boss easily but does not, he keeps his mouth shut, he doesn't even murmur a retaliation.
He has to feel a pain in his chest that becomes unbearable until he sees a certain soul that is the right one to tell. No matter what. In the long poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge has three lessons about human life: supernatural, pride, and suffering. In “Rime” by Sam Coleridge, the mariner goes through many supernatural events that scare him into submission. Coleridge does a great job of describing the scenery around the boat that the mariner resides in.
As the ancient Mariner described his adventures at sea to the Wedding-Guest, the Guest became saddened because he identified his own selfish ways with those of the Mariner. The mariner told the Guest that he and his ship-mates were lucky because at the beginning of their voyage they had good weather. The mariner only saw what was on the surface -- he did not see the good weather as evidence that Someone was guiding them. Also, when he shot the Albatross, the Mariner did not have any reason for doing so. The Albatross did nothing wrong, yet the Mariner thought nothing of it and without thinking of the significance of the act, he killed the bird. At this, the Guest was reminded of how self-absorbed he, too, was, and the sinful nature of man. At the beginning of the poem he was very much intent on arriving at the wedding on time. He did not care at all about what it was that the Mariner had to tell him; he did not want to be detained even if the Mariner was in trouble. Instead, he spoke rudely to the mariner, calling him a "gray-beard loon", and tried to go on his own way.
Overall “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is poem that seems like a simple story told by a sailor about his woes at sea. But Coleridge uses many details to make symbols throughout the story for the reader to interpret and see the connections between it and religion. Whether it be through the Christ like albatross, which most would just see as a simple bird, or the woman on the boat showing how the lifestyle might be fun but ultimate leads to nothing we see that these small details create a bigger story than what is just on the cover.
...ous allegory represents Christian ideals such as sin, forgiveness, and prayer. In addition, Coleridge’s use of language and form contribute to the message conveyed in the text. The form fluctuates throughout the text by use of different rhyme schemes, loose meter, and stanzas in length varying four to nine lines. The variety of form could be representative the array of interpretations of this text. Coleridge conveys profound religious meaning by using symbolic language with interpretive representations. Although his use of elevated language possibly narrowed the audience, that could have been his intentions due to the complexities of this philosophical poem. In the end, Coleridge’s depiction of the Mariner’s journey ultimately conveys the Christian ideal, which is to love and appreciate all creatures created by God, whether Albatross or snake.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the first of many stories in this time era of the Romantics. It is a very different story from any other authors in this era for the dark and eerie sense that is told in the story. Samuel Taylor Coleridge gives his readers a new look on the Romantics in the rimes. There are seven rimes, which could be seven chapters to tell the story. First we are in the present day; at a wedding the ancient mariner is telling his story to all the people. Then, we jump into the story he tells them. It is about how he was cursed when he shot the albatross and messed with Mother Nature. So Mother Nature made put the dead bird around his neck and death and her maiden came for a visit. All of the other sailors on the ship suddenly died in the presence of death while the mariner was stuck in a no wind zone. He begins to pray and feel remorse for killing the bird, so the bird falls off his neck and death brings his old sailors partially back to life so he can get home. This is the first time zombies have ever been imagined. Once he gets home, he begins his lifelong penanc...
The mariner in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner can be looked at just the story teller in this poem. As the albatross is noted to be the central underlining concept of the entire plot and is often looked at as a symbolism of Christ. The mariner is often over looked when there are great discussions of the poem. However, the mariner is more than just the story teller. He could be looked at as a non-believer of Christ and, even to go further, he could be looked at as Judas, one of the first twelve original apostles of Jesus Christ who did not believe in Jesus Christ. The correlation between Judas and the mariner starts from the doubt of Jesus, or in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’s case, the albatross, to the betrayal and killing, and lastly the guilty that remains, but there did not repent for their actions.
Coleridge's poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is written about a Mariner telling his tale of sin and forgiveness to a small group of young men on their way to attend a wedding. The Mariner claims to be responsible for the deaths of everyone on board of a ship he once sailed because he killed a creature that was supposed to bring them the wind they needed to resume sailing after hitting a plateau in the ship’s movement.
Through alliteration and imagery, Coleridge turns the words of the poem into a system of symbols that become unfixed to the reader. Coleridge uses alliteration throughout the poem, in which the reader “hovers” between imagination and reality. As the reader moves through the poem, they feel as if they are traveling along a river, “five miles meandering with a mazy motion” (25). The words become a symbol of a slow moving river and as the reader travels along the river, they are also traveling through each stanza. This creates a scene that the viewer can turn words into symbols while in reality they are just reading text. Coleridge is also able to illustrate a suspension of the mind through imagery; done so by producing images that are unfixed to the r...
with the alliteration of the frst five lines : "Kubla Khan'', ''dome decree'', and ''sunless sea''. Coleridge interlaces short exclamations (''but oh!'', ''a savage place!'') and exageratedly long exclamations (''as holy and enchanted as e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted by a woman wailing for her demon lover!'') reinforces the feeling of flowing which is related to the time ''ticking'' irregularly away, creating a sense of timelessness.
Moreover, these various fragments all combine to instill a sense of ambiguity throughout the poem. In a sense, as the poem progresses, the audience discovers further and more troublesome questions regarding its message and its implications. The audience, perhaps, even begins to wonder if there are indeed absolute answers or whether Coleridge consciously intended to create an unresolved poem. Amid this unsettling tumult of questions, one is left to dedicatedly follow Coleridge’s journey in a sequential manner in an attempt to consider and ponder these ambiguities as they arise. Inevitably, however, lingering questions will ...