Bell Ringer

Note: Guilt introduces a division between the person who feels guilt and other individuals.

Write a paragraph about a time when you felt guilty. Include an explanation of how you overcame that feeling.

We will return to your paragraphs after reading the poem.

About the Selection

• Coleridge has developed a fantastical vocabulary of images with which to explore the isolation created by guilt.

• This poem vividly illustrates the torments guilt can create and the horror of complete isolation from society.

• The central character, the ancient Mariner, recounts the tale of his crime against life and the physical and emotional punishments his action sets in motion.

Illustrations

• Most of the illustrations in this presentation are part of a series of illustrations created by Gustave Doré in 1875.

• Doré, who was born in 1832, in Strasbourg, France, near the German border, moved to Paris in 1847.

• A self-taught artist, Doré refined his technique through independent study of engraving at the National Library in Paris.

Associated Literary Terms

• Frame narrative• Alliteration• Assonance• Repetition• Imagery• Onomatopoeia• Archaisms

Rime

• Rime is the original spelling of “rhyme.” The latter word mistakenly came into use as a result of confusion with the word “rhythm.”

• Why do you think Coleridge chose the archaic spelling?

Explanation

• The choice immediately places his work in a distant past unfamiliar to his readers and serves the fantastic nature of the work to follow.

Part I

Lines 1-82

Wherefore stopp’st thou me?

This engraving:• three men are en route

to a wedding feast • an ancient Mariner

detains one of the men • the eyes of the man

detained suggest that he is a bit annoyed (perhaps a bit afraid)

Literary Elements

• What is the stanza structure?• What is the rhyme scheme of the selection?

Explanation

• Stanzas are four lines long• The rhyme scheme is abcb• This is the form typical of early English ballads,

reinforcing the impression that the dramatic story is set in the Middle Ages

Diction: Lines 5-16

• Note the use of archaic verb forms (stoppeth, may’st) and pronoun forms (thy, thou)

• What conclusion do you draw about the use of this diction?

Explanation• Like the archaic word “rime” and the ballad

elements, the verb forms suggest the past. The author’s diction also reinforces the unfamiliar setting and helps establish the fantastic nature of the work.

• NOTE: Thou is the nominative form of “you.” Thee is the objective form of “you.”

• The verb ending –st indicates the second person.• The verb ending –th or –eth indicates the third

person.

Poetic Sound Devices

internal rhyme: the use of rhyme within a poetic line—having a word in the middle of a line rhyme with the end word.

assonance: the repetition of a vowel sound in stressed syllables with different consonant sounds.

Literary Analysis

What examples of internal rhymes and assonance can you find in lines

5-8?

Answer

internal rhyme: met/setAssonance: next/guests/met/set

Reading Check: Lines 13-20

What effect does the ancient Mariner have on the Wedding

Guest?

The Wedding Guest

The Mariner has a hypnotic effect on the Wedding Guest who is spellbound by the eye of the old seafaring soul. The ancient man insists that the younger man must hear a tale. (Lines 17-20)

Lines 21-24The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared / merrily did we drop / Below the Kirk, below the hill / Below the

lighthouse top.

Lines 25-28The Sun came up upon the left, / Out of the sea came he! / And he shone bright,

and on the right / Went down into the sea.

Lines 21-32: The Mariner tells how the ship sailed away from his home harbor, out of sight of the church and the lighthouse, continuing southward with a good wind and fair weather till it reached the Line (equator).

Illustration not by Doré.

Red as a rose is the bride

The wedding guest , who has already explained that he is “next of kin,” hears the bridal music and wants to go on to the feast, but the mariner continues his tale.

Lines 32 - 40

• Why does the poet interrupt the Mariner’s tale at this point?

Explanation

• The interruption reminds the reader that the wedding is about to start and that the Wedding Guest should go but cannot because he feels compelled to stay and listen.

• The pause signals a dramatic shift in the narrative and the introduction of the fantastic.

What is the effect of the archaic word “spake” in line 39?

Answer

The use of the archaic form of “spoke,” lends the poem a feeling of

ancient mystery and fantasy.

The ship fled the storm

Lines 41-50: A storm blew in and drove the ship toward the South Pole. (Shortly after setting out, the ship encountered bad weather).

The storm blew them, further and faster, southward—

Lines 45 - 50

• Why does the poet shift from four-line stanzas to a six-line stanza?

Explanation

• We have become accustomed to a certain pace. The new length forces us to read faster as the rhythm echoes the effects of the storm that drives the ship onward.

And it grew wondrous

cold

Lines 51-54: “And ice, mast-high, came floating by…” The land of ice and of fearful sounds, where no living thing was to be seen.

Reading Skill: Sound Devices

Lines 51-54: Alternation of long and short sounds of the vowel a in line 53 (“mast-high, came”) and the alternation of long and short sounds of the vowel e in line 54 (“As green as emerald”) create a wavelike movement; the contrast emphasizes the words with the long sound (came and green).

The ice was all around

Lines 59-62: 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!

Onomatopoeia

• Identify four examples of this literary device in lines 59-62• Discuss the effect of using the device

here

• cracked• growled• roared• howled

The effect is to make the ice seem more like a supernatural monster than a natural feature to be found in polar regions

Text Structures

• The plot incidents work on two levels. One level involves a physical journey from a familiar environment to wild, remote regions of the globe and back.

• What, do you think, is the other level?

Explanation

• The other level is a spiritual journey which takes the ancient Mariner from innocence to the point of damnation and back toward a state of redemption.

The albatross

Lines 63-78: Then, a great sea bird called the Albatross came through the snow-fog and was received by the crew with great joy and hospitality.

Critical Thinking: Lines 71 - 82

• Why does the poet continuously describe the Mariner’s eyes as “glittering” and “bright”?

Explanation

• He is suggesting that the Mariner has a “mad glint” in his eye. Such a gleam may be seen in other literary characters who are controlled by a force outside themselves.

• Have you ever seen Stephen King’s The Shining, for example? What is the look in the eye of the character played by Jack Nicholson?

I shot the albatross

Lines 79-82: The ancient Mariner inhospitably kills the pious bird of good omen.

The illustration depicts the bird as innocent and unaware that it is about to be shot. The engraving captures the instant just prior to the arrow’s strike.

Author’s Craft

• DICTIONThe gloss or marginal notes in the right margin have been added by the poet. The poet uses these notes to help the reader accept the supernatural elements in the story. (The author’s voice helps readers suspend their disbelief by providing a “rational” voice and perspective on the fantastic events in the story.

Part II

Lines 83-142

Lines 83-86The Sun now rose upon the right / Out of the sea came he, / Still

hid in mist, and on the left / Went down into the sea.

What do these lines tell you?

Explanation

• The sun now rises on the right and sets on the left. The wind blows from the south, driving the ship northward from Antarctica.

Comparing and Contrasting Sound Devices

How does the use of alliteration and internal rhyme in lines 91-94 give a fatal feeling to the Mariner’s deed?

Answer

Alliteration and internal rhyme add emphasis to and slow down lines of poetry. The devices also make the words involved seem to follow one another as if they were fated, since sound as well as sense requires the use of these particular words. In this way, the alliterations had/hellish, would/work/woe, and breeze/blow, along with the internal rhyme averred/bird, make the stanza portentous and contribute to the fatal feeling of the Mariner’s action.

I had done a hellish

thing

The shipmates cried out against the Ancient Mariner for killing the bird of good luck.

The Mariner’s Isolation

’Twas right said they, such birds to slay, / That bring the fog and mist.• Though they cried out against him at first,

when the fog cleared the shipmates justified the Mariner’s actions, thus making themselves accomplices in the crime.

I had done a hellish

thingThis illustration depicts the Mariner's attitude after killing the albatross.

Compare and contrast the drawing with the Wedding Celebration drawing from the frame narrative.

So Lonely

Lines 87-90: “And the good south wind still blew behind, / But no sweet bird did follow. / Nor any day for food or play / Came to the mariners’ hollo!”

• The fair breeze continues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails northward till it reaches the Line. Suddenly, the ship is becalmed.

• Read lines 115-119. How does the repetition of words contribute to the image of the stilled ship?

Answer

The repetition of words echoes the ship’s condition of rest; like the ship, the line does not move, since the same words keep returning.

Critical Thinking: Lines 91 - 103

• What cause and effect is at work when the crew members change their minds about the Mariner’s killing of the bird? In other words, why do they change their minds?

Explanation

• The fog lifts after the bird is killed, so the crew members hold the bird responsible for the fog, justifying the mariner’s action.

• This incorporation of superstition is a Gothic element.

Internal Rhyme

• Two examples here are “blew”/ “flew” in line 103, and “first” / “burst” in line 105. (You will recall that the first use of this technique was “met” / “set” in line 7.

FYI

• Two of the most frequently quoted phrases from English poetry are found in lines 117 – 122:

• “painted ship upon a painted ocean” and “water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”

Water, water,

everywhere

Lines 95-126: The Albatross begins to be avenged. The shipmates now want to throw all the blame back on the Mariner, so they hang the carcass of the Albatross around his neck.

Artistic effects

Elements in the engraving that reveal the sailors’ thirst and suffering include a man grasping his head in anguish, a sailor bent over the side of the ship as if imploring the heavens, and the general mass of men lying prostrate or with heads bowed.

Read lines 127-130, focusing on the sound devices.

Notice that the increased concentration—the massing

together of sound devices in these lines—has the dramatic effect of a

chant or incantation.

The Death-Fires danced

at night

St. Elmo’s Fire, a visible electrical discharge from a ship’s mast, believed by sailors to be an omen of disaster.

What’s Up?• The ship is becalmed. • They are in “the doldrums” which refers to an area, or

belt, near the Equator in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

• Weather in the doldrums is characterized by no wind or very light winds.

• In ancient times, while becalmed, crews used up their precious stores of food and water while making no progress toward their destination.

• Fresh water was especially important because the salinity of ocean water not only makes it undrinkable but also causes illness.

Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung.

Summary

• The ship sets out in familiar waters that are described realistically. Its voyage carries it into uncharted regions that take on qualities of a nightmare.

Part III

Lines 143-223

Nine fathom deep he had followed me

A Spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of the planet, neither departed souls nor angels. These spirits are very numerous, and there is no climate or element without one or more.

What poetic effect does Coleridge use in lines 149-153 to build suspense?

Here, Coleridge uses repetition to build suspense.

What is the effect of repeating the old-fashioned word wist?

The word wist brings the sound of water splashing against the hull of the ship.

Fantastic Language and Archaic Vocabulary also

contribute to the mood of a poem

Line 168: Hither to work us weal

Words like hither and weal set this line apart from contemporary

culture.

Mood

What mood does this engraving evoke?

The mood is despairing and hopeless.

The death ship nears

Lines 149-161: The ancient Mariner sees a far off speck. As it gets nearer, he thinks it is a ship, so he moistens his parched throat with his own blood so that he can shout, “A sail! A sail!”

Lines 165 - 166

• Can you see ambiguity in these lines?(In other words, could the lines be interpretted more than one way?)

Possible meanings

1. Like the Mariner, the other sailors are drinking blood—an initiation rite in vampire tales.

2. “As” could mean “as if.” This would lead to the interpretation that the lines are a simile and that the sailors are symbolically “drinking in the sight.”

What reactions to the sighting of the other ship would you expect from the sailors?

Can you find such reactions in the engraving?

• One would expect the other sailors would experience joy and relief at the sighting of another ship on the horizon. The sailors in the engraving do not look joyful. Some are lost in their despair, while those who seem aware of the other ship’s approach still seem grim.

• Possible explanations?

Illustrations not by Doré.

Perhaps a flash of joy followed by horror. What ship can come around without wind or tide?

It seems but the skeleton of a ship

The ribs of the ship are seen as bars in the face of the setting sun.

Image of the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Read Lines 193-94

In what way does the name of the woman—Life-in-Death—add to the eerie,

mysterious atmosphere of the story?

The name of the woman is like something from an old nightmare, and it adds to the mysterious

feeling of the story.

the game is done!

Lines 195-198: As the ghost ship carrying Death and his mate, Life-In-Death, approaches, the two specters play a game for possession of the sailors' lives. Death wins the Mariner's shipmates, but Life-In-Death wins the Mariner.

Line 214: “Four times fifty living men,”

Coleridge’s archaic way of expressing numbers makes the story seem more fanciful than real, contributing to the fairy-

tale atmosphere.

Each… cursed me

with his eye

Lines 212-15: At the rising of the Moon, one after another, the ancient Mariner’s shipmates drop dead around him, but the curse lives on in the eye of each of the dead men.

Part IV

Lines 224-291

Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding Guest

• The wedding guest interrupts, saying that he fears the ancient Mariner is a Spirit, but the ancient Mariner reassures the man and continues with the tale of his horrible penance.

No saint took pity

Life-in-Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner. No saint will release him to the peace of death.

What element of this engraving reflects the Mariner’s spiritual experience?

Possible Answer

The boat is isolated amidst a sea of dark and turbulent water; the Mariner is spiritually isolated amidst the dark and turbulent experiences of death and despair.

Critical Viewing

Identify two elements in this engraving that create a gloomy, suspense-filled atmosphere.

Analysis

The engraving depicts a dark day at sea, and the shadows give the feeling that something might

happen.

Lines 238-39

• He despises the creatures and is upset that he and they should live on while so many men have died.

“A thousand thousand slimy things / Lived on; and so did I.”

I looked upon the

rotting sea

“And drew my eyes away / I looked upon the rotting deck,/ And there the dead men lay.” (Lines 240-43)

The other sailors have died with their eyes gaping at the Mariner.

The repetition in these lines emphasizes the starkness of the Mariner’s situation

—the fact that he has “no way out.”

And yet I could not

die

Line 262: He has no place to turn for comfort, finding only dead men on the ship and slimy life in the ocean.

The moving moon went up to the sky

Lines 263-66: In his loneliness, he yearns toward the journeying Moon, and toward the stars that stay for a while yet still move onward, noting that everywhere the blue sky belongs to them.

Analyzing Patterns of Imagery

Definition: Putting patterns together to reveal the theme and understand the tone of a literary

work.

Read Lines 270-76

How does Coleridge’s pattern of imagery in these lines help set the

tone of the poem?

The first reference to color, describing the calm, enamored body of water, seems to suggest intensity

and danger. The second reference to color connects the image of life and beauty with the movement of the

snakes. The images show that nature can be both frightening and

beautiful.

I watched the water-

snakes

Lines 272-92:By the light of the Moon, he sees God’s creatures of the sea and begins to appreciate them for their beauty, silently blessing them in his heart.

What does the

engraving suggest

about the attitude of the Mariner

at this moment?

Compare and Contrast

How does Coleridge’s description of the creatures of the great calm compare and contrast with the artist’s representation of them?

The artist has skillfully represented water snakes moving in “tracks of shining white” (Line 274), but the etching does not seem to depict

“every track was a flash of golden fire” (Line 281).

Read Lines 288-91

1.What two events happen in these lines? 2. How does the connection of the two events add to the fairy-tale quality of the story?

1. As soon as the Mariner is able to pray, the albatross falls from his neck and sinks into the sea.

2. When he admires and feels love for the water snakes, the ancient Mariner reconnects himself to nature and the forces of life, so the dead albatross, the symbol of his rejection of nature, falls from around his neck. The coordination of internal events (the Mariner’s discovery of love) with external, symbolic events (the dropping off of the albatross) is characteristic of fairy tales.

Part V

Lines 292-409

The rain poured down

from one black cloud

Lines 292-300: The spell begins to break. By the grace of the holy Mother (“To Mary queen the praise be given!”), the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.

Read Lines 331-34

Find an example of assonance.(Reminder: the repetition of vowel

sounds in unrhymed syllables.)

groaned / uprose

They all uprose

Lines 331-353: He hears sounds and sees strange sights and commotions in the sky and the element.

Read lines 350-53

What happens to the bodies of the Mariner’s shipmates?

They become inhabited by

angelic spirits.

“I fear thee, ancient Mariner”

• This again frightens the wedding guest, and the Mariner explains that it was not the souls of the men, nor the demons of earth or middle air that made the ship move…

Read Lines 373-76

How does the alliteration enhance the description of the boat’s smooth

progress?

Alliteration enables the language of these lines to flow effortlessly from one word to another, in a fashion that mimics the boat’s

slow and smooth progress.

The sails made on a pleasant

noise

…but a blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent down by the invocation of the guardian saint.

I fell down in a swound

Line 392.The Mariner’s living life has returned, and he has been cast into a trance because the angelic power causes the vessel to drive northward faster than human life can endure.

Art and Humanities

Which details in the picture suggest that it is the spirit “From the land of mist and snow” (Line 378) that is making “the ship to go” (Line 380)?

The white clouds of mist

surrounding the ship suggest that

something mystical and otherworldly

“made the ship to go.”

Art and Humanities

Which details in the illustration convey the mood of hopelessness?

The position of the Mariner—flat on his

back with hands grasping at the ropes—conveys a mood of

hopelessness. The ship’s askew position

also contributes to the mood.

Part VI

Lines 410-513

“But tell me, tell me! Speak again, / Thy soft response renewing— / What makes the ship drive on so fast? / What is the ocean doing?”

Without Wind or Wave

Two voices in the air

Part IVLine 410. The Polar Spirit’s fellow demons, the invisible inhabitants of the element, take part in his wrong, and two of them relate, one to the other, that penance, long and heavy for the ancient Mariner, has been accorded to the Polar Spirit, who now returns southward.

Reading Check

What do the two voices discuss?

Answer

• The two voices discuss whether or not the ancient Mariner has performed his penance for killing the albatross, and they discuss the progress of the ship.

How do the two voices contribute to Coleridge’s creation of a dream world?

Literary Analysis Question:Poetic Sound Devices

Possible Answer

• The voices that the ancient Mariner overhears are disembodied. They discuss his actions and his fate as if they had complete knowledge of him. These facts suggest that they are supernatural powers, as might be encountered in a dream world.

Lines 430-471

• The Mariner awakes from his trance, and the supernatural motion is retarded; however, he feels that his penance has begun anew because he cannot take his eyes from the eyes of the dead crew and this tweaks the pain of the pang of their deaths. Suddenly, he realizes the spell has snapped. The curse is finally expiated (atoned for).

The shadow of the moon

Lines 472-475: The ancient Mariner beholds a harbor bay.

What familiar things does the Mariner suddenly see?

Answer

The top of the lighthouse, the hill, the kirk, and his own country.

In crimson colors came

Lines 480-499.

HUMANITIES QUESTION:

Which elements of this and other engravings reveal the influence of the Romantic period in which Doré was born?

Possible Answer

• The intricately drawn waves of the sea and the flowing robes of the spirits reveal the influence of the Romantic period.

TRADITION OF FANTASY IN BRITISH LITERATURE

• imaginary worlds treated with great liveliness and attention to detail (echoed by Jonathan Swift in his epic Gulliver’s Travels, by Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Jules Verne in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by C. S. Lewis in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe).

• incorporated in popular contemporary fiction (Ex.: J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels)

Lines 480-499:

• What images in these lines contribute to the fantastical atmosphere in the poem?

Answer

Fantastic elements in these lines include the shapes, shadows, and crimson colors in lines 482-3, the angelic figures that appear by the

dead bodies, the “lovely light” given off by the seraphs, and the musical

quality of the silence in lines 488-90.

Lines 504-513

• These lines are less crowded with sound devices than the lines describing the Mariner’s nightmarish sea journey. This shift in language matches the shift in mood—the language becomes less rich and surreal as the Mariner finds his way home.

Part VII

Lines 514-625

The skiff-boat neared

Part VIILines 514-22

What does the Mariner think that the Hermit will do for him?

Answer

The Mariner thinks that the Hermit will absolve him from his sins.

Lines 523-6

Coleridge borrowed from medieval traditions in writing his poem.

Which word might Coleridge have borrowed from medieval tales of knights?

Answer:

The word trow (meaning believe) comes from the lexicon of medieval

chivalry.

Read Lines 556-559

1. Identify any poetic effects in the lines.2. What impact do these effects contribute?

Answers1.

• Internal rhyme: still and hill• Alliteration: whirl/where, sank/ship,

still/save• Repetition: “round and round”

2.• The poetic effects contribute to the

momentum of the lines.

The whirl

The ship suddenly sinks. The ancient Mariner is saved in the Pilot’s boat.

The Pilot

This engraving illustrates the stanzas of the poem in which the Mariner is saved in the Pilot’s boat.

shrieve (archaic form of shrive)

[v] 1) to administer the sacrament of reconciliation; 2) to free from guilt; 3) to confess one’s sins, esp. to a priest. (Miriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary)

Oh shrieve me, holy man

Line 574: The Mariner earnestly pleads with the Hermit to perform the rite which will absolve the Mariner of guilt.

Read Lines 578-81

• What happens to the ancient Mariner in these lines?

• The penance of life falls on him, and his body is taken over by a powerful, painful force which compels him to tell his story teaching love for “all things both great and small.”

Strange power of speech

Lines 586-90: The Mariner must tell his tale as a continued punishment for killing the albatross.

He travels from land to land repeating the tale.

What do you think is meant by “strange power of speech”?

I know the man that

must hear me

Lines 589-90: “To him my tale I teach.”The alliteration in this line emphasizes the centrality of the tale to the story and points to the selection process of the recipient.

The wedding guests

Lines 591-94: “What loud uproar bursts from that door! / The wedding guests are there: / But in the garden bower the bride / An bridesmaids singing are:”

The Mariner is gone

Lines 622-25: “He went like one that had been stunned / And is of sense forlorn: / A sadder and a wiser man, / He rose the morrow morn.”

What do you infer from lines 622-23?

Sources

• Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Prentice Hall Literature: The British Tradition. Texas Teacher’s Edition. Grant Wiggins, et al., Eds. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2011. Print.

• Doré, Gustave. “Images from Gustave Doré‘s illustrations to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Art Passions. 20 January 2011. Web. <http://dore.artpassions.net/>.