Rime of the Ancient Mariner Part IV by: Samuel Coleridge Alexa Summers&Matt Fellman

What is the literal sense of the poem? He is talking about the bird that he killed and how he was worried and scared. He’s talking to a wedding guest about the bird and how he shouldn’t be scared. he feels alone because he killed the good luck with the killing of the bird. People died because of the bird being killed and he’s the only one alive. He couldn’t look at the sea or the deck of the boat because everything looked dead and unpleasant. He wanted to pray but couldn’t because his heart was dry and was getting distracted.

Continued… He closed his eye because he couldn’t look at anything anymore. The people didn’t look dead and they didn’t smell like it either. He saw the bad with dead people but he couldn’t die himself. It became night. The water around the boat was red. There were water animals around the ship. The water snakes swam in the boat’s shadow and it looked like fire. Everything living is blessed and he wants forgiveness. Albatross died and he feels like its his fault.

. What is the diction of the poem This poem uses colloquial, abstract, vivid, absolute and a little bit of slang. it creates vivid expressions by word order. There are no other connotations or associations beyond the standard denotation, or definition The etymology is not important to the meaning of the poem.

What are the tone and mood of the poem? The poem sets a mood of being mad at themselves and upset and worried because of what is going on. The poem bores you or makes you feel as if they are specifically talking to you.

What is the rhetorical situation implied by the poem? the speaker is talking to you, the reader, about his experience on the boat when everything bad happened. The poet is speaking directly to the reader.

Does the poem use figurative language? Similes: a comparison using “like or as.” Ex: “My heart as dry as dust” “ and the balls like pulses beat” Metaphor: a comparison made by direct association, through substitution of one thing or idea for another. Ex: “and a thousand thousand slimy things” “her lips were red” Personification: attributing human qualities to an inanimate object or an abstract concept. No personification in part 4 of this poem. Alliteration: repetition of the beginning consonant letters and sounds “‘wicked whisper” Assonance: Repetition of beginning vowel sounds “Alone, alone, all, all alone”

What kind of Imagery does the poem use? This poem describes mental pictures such as “the cold sweat melted from their limbs” “I fear thee and thy glittering eye” “I looked upon the rotting sea” “Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, They coiled and swam” This poem is very descriptive when it describes something. The words it uses. When you read through the poem you will have images of dead men lying on the deck of a ship, snakes roaming through the waters snakes of different colors. The overall look on the poem is gloomy. When the protagonist says “I looked to heaven, and tried to pray” he has more of a meaning behind it because he is not only trying to pray, you can imply that he is attempting to ask for forgiveness for killing the Albatross and that he feel s bad about what he has done.

How does sound contribute to the effect of the poem? Parallelism is a rhetorical literary device and is used to make a parallel comparison. “I fear thee ancient mariner” “I fear thy ancient hand” the parallelism is in the “ I fear” “Alone alone, all all alone” “Alone on a wide wide sea” emphasizes him being alone.

Continued… Alliteration: repetition of beginning consonant sounds “wicked whisper” Assonance: repetition of beginning vowel sounds “Alone, alone, all, all alone”

How is the poem structured? The poem is in standard form, with the lines grouped together in stanzas. In all the stanzas that have 4 lines the rhyme scheme is abcb, the stanzas with 5 lines the rhyme scheme is abcdb, and the stanzas with 6 lines the rhyme scheme is abcbdb