Rime of the Ancient MarinerPart 2

Elizabeth Hodges

Chantelle Lafrance

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge• Coleridge, Samuel T. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part 2 by

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - WriteWords Library Online." WriteWords - Writing Community - Jobs, Directory, Forums, Articles for Writers. 24 Jan. 2005. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. <http://www.writewords.org.uk/library/8484.asp>.

Poem:The Sun now rose upon the right:Out of the sea came he,Still hid in mist, and on the leftWent down into the sea.

And the good south wind still blew behindBut no sweet bird did follow,Nor any day for food or playCame to the mariners' hollo!

And I had done an hellish thing,And it would work 'em woe:For all averred, I had killed the birdThat made the breeze to blow.Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slayThat made the breeze to blow!

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,The glorious Sun uprist:Then all averred, I had killed the birdThat brought the fog and mist.'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,The furrow followed free:We were the first that ever burstInto that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,'Twas sad as sad could be;And we did speak only to breakThe silence of the sea!

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 shipUpon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,And all the boards did shrink;Water, water, every where,Nor any drop to drink

The very deep did rot: O Christ!That ever this should be!Yea, slimy things did crawl with legsUpon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and routThe death-fires danced at night;The water, like a witch's oils,Burnt green, and blue and white.

And some in dreams assured wereOf the spirit that plagued us so:Nine fathom deep he had followed usFrom the land of mist and snow.

And every tongue, through utter drought,Was withered at the root;We could not speak, no more than ifWe had been choked with soot.

Ah! well a-day! what evil looksHad I from old and young!Instead of the cross, the AlbatrossAbout my neck was hung.

ParaphraseThe sun rises and sets in the fog. The south wind continues,

but there is no flying bird. The other sailors are angry at the Mariner for killing the bird that caused the wind. The fog disappears, and the sailors change their minds and decide the bird brought the fog, not the wind. They are happy with the Mariner now. The breeze leads the ship into a calm ocean, and the ship stops. The sun makes them hot and thirsty. They are out of water. The ocean is undrinkable and seems to be filled with dirty beasts. The Mariner talks about death fires at night. The water turns different colors. Some of the crew dreams a spirit follows them from the icy area. The crew becomes thirsty and unable to talk. The crew is giving him bad looks. And instead of a cross on his neck he wore a bird.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Part 2, Lines 83-142 | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | BookRags.com." BookRags.com | Study Guides, Lesson Plans, Book Summaries and More. Ed. Thomson Gale. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. <http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-rime-ancient-mariner/chapanal004.html>.

Diction

• Coleridge uses formal, concrete, and vivid language in this poem.

• “And I had done an hellish thing”- it means he did a horrible thing, for killing the albatross.

Tone and mood

• He’s is regretful

• He’s in a serious mood because he is regretting his actions.

Rhetorical Situation

• The author is the speaker and he is thinking to himself.

• And he is communicating that you should not do something you might regret.

Figurative Language

• Irony – “Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink ; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.” (lines 119-122) Water is everywhere, but there is none to drink

• Simile- “The water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green, and blue and white.” (lines 129-130)

Comparison of water to witch's oils

Imagery

• “All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun, at noon,” – this is describing how hot the sun is at noon.

• “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew” – he is describing the foam from the waves being blown by the wind.

Sound

• Alliteration- “The furrow followed free” (line 104) 

• Repetition- “Water, water, every where,And all the boards did shrink;Water, water, every where,Nor any drop to drink”

Structure:

• This poem is a ballad

• Coleridge makes most of the stanzas in the poem have four lines; but some have five or six lines. In the four-line stanzas, the second and fourth lines usually rhyme. In the five- and six-line stanzas, the second or third line usually rhymes with the final line. 

Conclusion

The author did well at getting his point across to his readers by setting the mood.

His strongest element was imagery because he was very descriptive of the scenery. It made the readers feel like they were in his head.

Personal reaction

• We did not like this poem because it was difficult to understand. We can not relate because we have never been on a ship nor have killed birds before.