1. ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ – Samuel Taylor Coleridge ‘Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean’. Illustrator: Willy Pogány

2. Literary context

3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) was an English lyric poet and essayist, described by John Stuart Mill as one of the seminal minds of his age. The son of an Anglican clergyman, Coleridge became a Unitarian, entering the ministry in 1798, although later in life he rejected Unitarian theology as incompatible with Christian belief.

4. ‘The Rime’ was first printed in the first edition of "Lyrical Ballads," 1798, again with considerable changes in the second edition, 1800, and without further significant change in the editions of 1802 and 1805. Its fifth appearance was in "Sibylline Leaves," 1817, again with some important changes, and the addition of the Latin motto and the marginal gloss. In the "Poetical Works," 1828, and again in the "Poetical Works," 1829, the poem appeared in its final form as we now have it,— differing very little from the form it had in "Sibylline Leaves." One or two significant minor changes will be mentioned in the notes.

5. Coleridge's close friendship with the poet William Wordsworth resulted in the joint publication, Lyrical Ballads, a landmark work that led to the emergence of the Romantic Movement in England. The poets sought to move beyond the formal restraints of eighteenth century English verse to emphasize the vitality of everyday life, the universality of human emotional experience, and the illuminating power of nature.

6. Coleridge’s contemporaries The poet William Wordsworth was born in 1770. By the time of his death in 1850 he had produced some of English poetry’s greatest works and influenced future generations of poets. Most of his life was spent in the Lake District. He was born in Cockermouth (a town in the northern Lakes); educated at Hawkshead Grammar school; and spent much of his adult life in Grasmere and Rydal, right in the heart of the Lake District.

7. What type of text is it? A lyric is typically a short poem that expresses the speaker's thoughts and emotions; a ballad is a dramatic narrative, a poem that tells a story. Lyrical Ballads, therefore, was an attempt by Coleridge and Wordsworth to bring together two poetic genres that previously had been seen as mutually exclusive. Where the two poets were innovative was in their attempt to develop a new poetry to encompass the new realities that they perceived in the world about them.

8. Socio- historic context Coleridge's ‘Rime’ was the first and longest poem in the volume, inspired by British explorations of the polar regions.

9. His inspiration The aesthetic theories Coleridge develops, while in some ways rather precocious, are also, in large measure, purloined from German Idealism. Drawing upon Immanuel Kant, J.G. Fichte, A.W. Schlegel and F.W.J. Schelling, while reinterpreting them (often by misreading them) in his own way, Coleridge sought religious truth by way of the interchange between experience and idea.

10. For Coleridge, one of the startling poverties of his time was that it saw no medium between literal and metaphorical; it expelled the symbolic many of his late eighteenth to early nineteenth-century moment still venerated commentators who distrusted mystery, and poets who divorced thought from feeling, who extolled intellectual clarity and discursive reasoning over emotional ambiguity and beauty.The Coleridgean symbol, on the other hand, defined in his Biographia Literaria, refers to a mystical vision of the divine, looks back to the pre-modern procedure of reconciling God’s immanence and transcendence.

11. Biographical context Just as the Ancient Mariner has to re-tell his tale, Coleridge has to keep on returning to this poem and revising it…

12. 'Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception‘ - Coleridge

13. Although known primarily as a poet, Coleridge also produced influential works on politics, philosophy, and theology. His lectures on Shakespeare established him as one of leading literary critics of the Romantic era. Coleridge suffered chronic neuralgic pain and became addicted to opiates.

14. His much-admired poem "Kubla Khan" was inspired by a dream vision in an opium-induced state. His addiction and pain led to near suicide, separation from his wife, and estrangement from his children. In his later years he lived in the household of his physician and enjoyed an almost legendary reputation among the younger Romantics.

15. Themes

16. ‘The Rime’ is the outlandish story of a sailor who, after killing a symbolic albatross, condemns himself and his shipmates to death on a motionless sea, where they sat "idle as a painted ship / upon a painted ocean." Death arrives on a ghostly ship, and takes the lives of all the crew but that of the eponymous mariner, who is cursed to wear the albatross about his neck and live amongst a ship of corpses. Then the moon— Coleridge's symbol of the imagination—appears and seemingly reanimates the mariner's crew; the ghosts sail the ship back to land where the mariner washes ashore, to tell his tale to anyone who passes.

17. Themes of the poem examine the ideas of crime and punishment in the poem, and the poet's attitude to the natural world. Death and Life-in-Death dice for the crew and the latter wins the mariner; when he returns to land, he finds he has to tell his tale; he ends his narrative by reminding the wedding guest of the need to love “man and bird and beast”; in the poem, the Polar Spirit is said to love the albatross, and two other spirits discuss the mariner's fate.

18. There are several secondary themes in 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', relating to Christianity and the supernatural, and two primary themes. The first primary theme concerns the potential consequences of a single unthinking act. When the mariner shoots an albatross, he does it casually and without animosity. Yet this impulsive, destructive act is his undoing. Similar to other Romantics, Coleridge believed that the seeds of destruction and creation are contained each within the other. One cannot create something without destroying something else. Likewise, destruction leads to the creation of something new. The loss of the mariner's ship, shipmates, and his own former self ultimately leads to the regeneration of the mariner. Themes

19. Coleridge focuses in the poem on humanity's relationship to the natural world. It is clear that the killing of the albatross brings dire consequences on the mariner. In a larger sense, it is not his killing of the bird that is wrong, but the mariner's—and by extension humankind's— callous and destructive relationship with nature that is in error. Coleridge intends to confront this relationship and place it in a larger philosophical context. If the reader grasps the lesson that the ancient mariner learns from his experience, then there are social implications.

20. Themes This process of destruction and regeneration introduces the poem's second main theme. The mariner gradually comes to realize the enormous consequences of his casual act, even as he struggles to accept responsibility for it. To do this he must comprehend that all things in nature are of equal value. Everything, as a part of nature, has its own beauty and is to be cherished for its own sake. This realization is suddenly apparent when the mariner spontaneously recognizes the beauty of the sea snakes; his heart fills with love for them, and he can bless them 'unaware'. The moral of the tale is manifest in the ancient mariner's final words to the wedding guest: 'He prayeth best, who loveth best/ All things both great and small;/ For the dear God who loveth us,/ He made and loveth all.'

21. Themes Part of Coleridge's technique is to personify aspects of nature as supernatural spirits, yet he does not on any level develop an argument for pantheism (the belief that God and the material world are one and the same and that God is present in everything). A great deal of Christian symbolism and some allegory are present—particularly at the end of Part 4, where connections are made between suffering, repentance, redemption, and penance. These elements combine to form a rich texture of both natural and religious symbolism that can be profoundly moving.

22. Themes Although the mariner's killing of the albatross, the terrifying deaths of his shipmates, and the grotesque descriptions of supernatural spirits are disturbing, these elements are intended to develop the story, to illustrate how the mariner's destructive act sets him apart, and to portray vividly the results of his act and the horrifying, repulsive world that he comes to inhabit because of it. The consequences are all the more terrible for having been set in motion by such a thoughtless act in the first place. Coleridge is working towards a goal—to portray the mariner's development into a sensitive, understanding, and compassionate human being. In so doing, he aims to persuade the reader to reconsider his or her attitudes towards the natural world.

23. Symbols

24. The albatross is a “pious bird of good omen”; the mariner kills it for no reason (most readers in 1798, like people in some other countries today, would see nothing wrong in a man's killing of a bird); at first his fellow sailors blame him, then when the fog goes they approve of his action (and so share his guilt); when they are becalmed they change their minds again and blame him, hanging the dead bird around his neck

25. Remember that our aim is to explore and analyse aspects of narrative: Structure/destination Perspective/point of view Characters/ relevance of character traits Voices Settings/scenes/places and their significance Timeframes/sequence

26. AO1: Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to literary texts, using appropriate terminology and concepts, and coherent, accurate written expression AO2: Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which structure, form and language shape meanings in literary texts AO3: Explore connections and comparisons between different literary texts, informed by interpretations of other readers. AO4: Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received

27. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge Possible exam question – section A 2. (a) How does Coleridge tell the mariner’s tale in Part 3 of the poem? (21 marks) (b) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an exploration of the unconscious mind. How do you respond to this reading of the poem? (21 marks)

28. Interpretation is a personal thing! Willy Pogany Gustav Doré

31. “poetry gives most pleasure when only generally and not perfectly understood" - Coleridge Many critics maintain, as Christopher Lamb does, that the ‘Ancient Mariner’ is a work of complete and pure imagination. As… No single interpretation seems to fit the entire poem… In essence, it is a very imaginative and unusual piece… Supernatural Dark Gothic?  “cursed me with his eye”  “Life-in-death”  “spectre bark” Gustav Doré’s Dark Etches…

32. Some critics see the ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ as an allegory of some kind of fall, like: 1. Lucifer - cast out of Heaven and into Hell? “…slimy things... Slimy sea” “…the very deep did rot…” 2. Adam - forbidden fruit? “I shot the albatross” “…and I had done a hellish thing…” 3. Cain and Abel? 4. Coleridge – Janus- like, bipolar(?), drug addict “witch’s oils, / … burnt green, and blue and white”

33. The poem could be his way of fathoming his feelings. Coleridge felt a deep sense of sin, for his opium addiction. The “strange power” of the Ancient Mariner, as his difficult feelings. “mingled strangely with my fears” “I know that man … must hear me” / “To him my tale I teach” Hence, his sensitivity; he stated that the poem should not be analysed! “poetry gives most pleasure when only generally and not perfectly understood“

34. “Instead of the cross, the Albatross/ About my neck was hung” “I had killed the bird / That made the breeze to blow” “Hailed it in God’s name” “Christian soul” “Crimson red like Gods own head” - “Hid in mist” - “dungeon-grate” “blessed them unawares” Crew distanced from God

35. Vs. Some critics maintain that this ballad was an exploration, by Coleridge, into the science vs. spirituality debate: There are many mysterious fantastical images,  the “glittering eye” with its “strange power”  the “polar spirits” and “seraph band” The Latin preface says, “Human cleverness has always sought knowledge of these things, never attained it”. He was at a point in his life where he was more concerned with the rational than the empirical, this poem was an exploration of the former.

37. The French Revolution took place from 1789- 1799. The Changes for reform were based on the Enlightenment thinkings of democracy, citizenship, and our undeniable rights. During the Reign of Terror, everyone was afraid that that day would be their last day to live because anything reported to be suspicious of being a traitor to the new government would be taken in account to and the persons would be taken captive and later beheaded at the guillotine. Neighbouring countries were afraid that France's revolution would soon spread as an example beyond French land and start rebellions in other countries.

38. Historical readings The French Revolution: popular overthrow of a corrupt monarchy, which in turn disintegrated into a reign of terror. When, where and why does the ship’s community seem to have broken down? What is the nature of justice in this poem? –Do the crew deserve to die? –Is the mariner’s punishment just? –Is the spirit’s justice random or arbitrary? What degree of violence is evident in this poem?

40. Between 10 and 28 million people taken from Africa (the exact figures are disputed) –17 million Africans sold into slavery on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and North Africa –12 million Africans taken to the Americas –5 million Africans taken across the Sahara and East Africa into slavery in other parts of the world What is undisputed is the degree of savage cruelty endured by men, women and children. Up to 20% of those chained in the holds of the slave ships died before they even reached their destination. In Europe, slavery was often justified by the state on philanthropic grounds. They argued that Africans taken into captivity could then be "saved" by conversion to Christianity. Britain banned the slave trade in 1807 but a fierce debate in the United States, which stoked civil war between the abolitionist northern states and the pro-slavery south, delayed a unified resolution. Slavery was eventually abolished in the US in 1865 by the 13th Amendment to the constitution. But it was not until 1888 - when slavery was banned in Brazil - that the trade was outlawed across the American continent. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1523100.stm

41. The Slave Trade ‘A shameful commerce’ Coleridge Is the spectral ship a slave ship, rotted with the diseased slaves it carried? Might the mariner with the albatross be seen as a chained slave? Could you read the mariner, in his loss of home, freedom and his suffering, as like a slave?

42. Remember that our aim is to explore and analyse aspects of narrative: Structure/destination Perspective/point of view Characters/ relevance of character traits Voices Settings/scenes/places and their significance Timeframes/sequence

43. Structure

44. Lyrical Ballads Lyrical they weren’t (in any current meaning of that word) they were narrative. But they were ballads as the word was then understood. The two cardinal points of poetry that Coleridge says they had in view in this partnership production were both believed to be special marks of the ballad; the charm of homeliness and simplicity, and the spell of the supernatural and romantic.

45. What type of text is it? Definition of a Ballad: traditionally, a ballad is a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story. Ballads are thus the narrative form of folk songs, which originate, and are communicated orally, among illiterate or only partly literate people. Meter/Rhythm of a ballad: The traditional ballad stanza is a quatrain in alternate four- and three-stress iambic lines; usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme (ABCB). ‘Rime’ is a literary ballad: a narrative poem written to imitate the form, language, and spirit of the traditional ballad.

46. Form ‘ The Rime’ written in loose, short ballad stanzas usually either four or six lines long but occasionally as many as nine lines long. The meter is also somewhat loose, but odd lines are generally tetrameter, while even lines are generally trimeter. (There are exceptions: In a five-line stanza, for instance, lines one, three, and four are likely to have four accented syllables--tetrameter--while lines two and five have three accented syllables.) The rhymes generally alternate in an ABAB or ABABAB scheme, though there are again many exceptions; the nine-line stanza in Part III, for instance, rhymes AABCCBDDB. Many stanzas include couplets in this way--five-line stanzas, for example, are rhymed ABCCB, often with an internal rhyme in the first line, or ABAAB, without the internal rhyme.

47. Structure The simple action of the plot, initiated by the mariner's unthinking, destructive act, leads to his tribulations and consequent progress to maturity. 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is an excellent example of Romantic poetry and is often read to understand the characteristics of this poetic genre.

48. Frame - This poem has a narrative ‘frame’, a tale set within a tale. Why does Coleridge make the Mariner’s auditor a Wedding-Guest? Also, who is the tale’s first auditor and what significance does that person have in the context of the strange nature of the tale?

49. The abrupt opening, the unannounced transitions in dialogue, the omission of all but the vital incidents of the story, all belong to the ballad style. The prose summary in the form of a marginal gloss, first added in the edition of 1817, is a practice taken from early printed books, but not from balladry, which is normally oral.

50. Some have described the story as having an ‘organic’ feel. The seven parts are seven stages of the narrative, each, except the last, closing with a reference to the Mariner's sin.

51. The story proceeds like the successive acts of a play. In Part I. the deed is committed. In Part II. the punishment begins. In Part III. the punishment reaches its climax. Part IV. brings the "turn"; in the crisis of his sufferings comes the consciousness of fellowship with other creatures and repentance for his cruelty. Parts V. and VI. relate his penance begun, and his return by supernatural agencies to the world of human fellowship. Part VII. brings us back to the opening scene, closing the whole with a moral.

52. Latin epigraph – why? Facile credo, plures esse naturas invisibiIes quam visibiles, in rerum universitate: pluresquo Angelorum ordines in caelo, quam sunt pisces in mari: Sed horum omnium familiam quis nobis enarrabit? Et gradus, et cognationes, et discrimina, et singulorum munera? Harum rerum notitiam semper ambivit ingenium humanum, nunquam attigit....Juvat utique non etc.: Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive Doctrina Antiqua De Rerum Originibus. Libri Duo: Londini, MDCXCII, p. 68.'

53. Perspective/point of view

54. The mariner recounts his story to the wedding guest.

55. Characters/ relevance of character traits

56. Characters The major character in 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is the mariner who relates his chilling experiences. It is he who kills the albatross, suffers the consequences, learns from his sufferings, and earns his redemption. As part of his penance, he spends his life telling his tale to others as a warning and a lesson. At first sight, the mariner appears terrifying in looks and manner, but he is so intense that the wedding guest is compelled to listen. As the tale unfolds, the wedding guest's reactions to the mariner change from scorn to sympathy, and finally even to pity. The wedding guest serves as a plot device to frame and advance the story, but he also undergoes a transformation of his own. Startled by the mariner who accosts him, the wedding guest first appears as a devil-may-care gallant. However, by the time he has heard the mariner's dreadful tale, he has become thoughtful and subdued.

57. Characters The mariner's shipmates are innocent victims of his rash act. Like the members of the wedding party, the sailors are purposefully kept vague and undeveloped, since Coleridge's intent is that the reader/audience focuses its full attention on the plight of the mariner.

58. Characters Supernatural beings appear in the poem as symbolic or allegorical figures, representing the forces of nature, life, death, and retribution. The mariner confronts these figures and must ultimately appease them in order to obtain his salvation.

59. Imagery This poem is very vivid, as the poet describes some spectacular scenes. These are often memorable in themselves but also stand for (symbolise) other things, for the people in the poem as much as the reader, sometimes. Elsewhere comparisons are made to describe things, as when the becalmed vessel is said to be “As idle as a painted ship/Upon a painted ocean”. Find some of the more striking or memorable images (there are lots of them!) and discuss the use the poet makes of them.

60. Her lips were red, her looks were free, Her locks were yellow as gold: Her skin was white as leprosy, The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she, Who thicks man's blood with cold.

61. The souls did from their bodies fly, -- They fled to bliss or woe! And every soul, it passed me by, Like the whizz of my cross-bow!

62. Voices

63. The narrative voice The mariner's tale, told in the first- person, is set within a third- person narrative about a wedding. This is also called a framed narrative; a narrative within a narrative. What other voices are there?

64. Poetic Technique In developing his themes in 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', Coleridge masterfully expresses various concepts through the use of symbols and imagery. Much of the imagery is powerful, Coleridge’s intense descriptions leave a lasting imprint on the reader. This combination of intellectual content and vivid descriptions is aesthetically appealing and, for some, emotionally affecting.

65. Poetic technique When Coleridge and Wordsworth developed the poetic theory that underlies Lyrical Ballads, they decided to use ordinary speech in their verses— what Wordsworth called 'the language of real life'. Embracing colloquial language was part of Wordsworth's and Coleridge's general break with neoclassical philosophies and traditions, which emphasized logic, structure, and formality. Wordsworth and Coleridge incorporated ballad forms, themes, and characters, and proposed to write poems about simple, natural characters.

66. Sound effects/phonology The poet uses effects of rhyme, alliteration (same initial consonant) and pacing (as in the line "For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky" which suggests the slow passing of time and the mariner's weariness) and other effects of sound. Discuss how these are used by Coleridge to re-enforce ideas in the poem.

67. Lexis/Diction Coleridge uses many dialect (regional non-standard) words, and archaic (old-fashioned) spellings of standard words. Why does he do this? Discuss particular examples of unusual words or spellings.

68. Language Some of the language is archaic, or old fashioned: ‘self-same’, ‘bemocked’. The suffix ‘Th’ is often used instead of ‘s’ at the end of verbs e.g. ‘prayeth’. Coleridge’s notes summarising the story along side the text contain the most difficult use of language and are best ignored: e.g. ‘he yearneth towards the journeying moon’. Most of the mariner’s words are simple and contain one syllable, suitable for an uneducated sailor to use for his story. The purpose of Coleridge’s commentary may have been to explain the mariner’s tale to educated people!

69. Tone There is a tone of dread or fear for much of the poem. The description of the curse in a dead men’s eye captures the horror well. The tone becomes happy and full of praise when the mariner expresses his delight at the colours of the water snakes. The tone is grateful when the mariner feels a kind saint took pity on him. Atmosphere The mood is frightening. The poem is a supernatural horror story. The wedding guest captures and expresses the tone of fear best: ‘I fear thee and thy glittering eye’. The atmosphere is evil: ‘curse’. The burning sea suggests hell.

70. Rhyme -The second and fourth line of each four-line stanza rhyme, providing a song like rhythm; e.g. ‘hand’ and ‘sand’ in the first stanza. - Some stanzas have five lines. In these stanzas the second line rhymes with the fifth, the third line rhymes with the fourth. - Some stanzas contain six lines. In these stanzas the second, fourth and sixth lines rhyme. - Repetition of words like ‘alone’, ‘rotting’, ‘seven’ etc add to the musical effect and create internal rhyme and cross rhyme, respectively. A good example of internal rhyme is: ‘For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky’. This is a good example of Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound].

71. The supernatural The poem is full of strange, macabre, uncanny or “Gothic” elements. Gothic horror fiction was very popular at the time it was written. Discuss how these elements appear in the poem. You should consider 1.the strange weather; 2.the albatross as a bird of “good omen”; 3.Death and Life-in-death; 4.the spirit from “the land of mist and snow”, and the two spirits the mariner hears in his trance; 5.the angelic spirits which move the bodies of the dead men; 6.the madness of the pilot and his boy; 7.the mariner's “strange power of speech”, 8.and anything else of interest.

72. Settings/scenes/places and their significance

73. Setting There are two settings in 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. In the first scene an ancient mariner stops a guest at a wedding party and begins to tell his tale. The mariner's words then transport the reader on a long ocean voyage, returning to the wedding at the end of the poem. The story is probably set in the late medieval period; the town in which the action occurs is never named, although it is likely that Coleridge's audience would have pictured a British seaport, possibly London.

74. Setting The primary setting is a trapped sailing ship on a sea that burned an awful red colour. It is set some centuries ago at a time when people believed in magic, the supernatural and superstition. The setting is highly imaginative. The setting gives the story in the poem a feeling of horror and ‘otherworldliness’.

75. Much of the archaic diction and antique spelling, as well as the ruder grotesquerie, that in the first edition proclaimed its relation to the pseudo-balladry of the time disappeared in the later editions. But the archaisms, the "unpoetical" diction, and especially the disregard of tense coherence in the poem as we now have it, contribute greatly to the atmosphere of romance—as of a story removed alike from the commonplace experience of every day and from familiar literary conventions—which it was Coleridge's intention to produce. By a few devotional ejaculations—"Heaven's Mother send us grace!" "To Mary Queen the praise be given!"—we are made to feel that the Ancient Mariner lived before the Reformation, in the ages of wonder and faith.

76. Timeframes/sequence Orientation Development Complication Crisis Resolution Coda