The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Summary

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the long literary ballad with which Coleridge opened Lyrical Ballads in 1798; the text here is his revised version in seven parts. An old sailor stops one of three young men on their way to a wedding feast and, holding him with his glittering eye, forces him to listen to a tale. His ship was driven by storms into the frozen south, where an albatross came through the fog. The crew hailed it as a good omen, the ice split, and a south wind sprang up; but the Mariner, for no stated reason, shot the bird with his crossbow. The ship sailed north into the Pacific, the wind died, and the crew were becalmed under a burning sun, dying of thirst: water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink. The sailors hung the dead albatross around the Mariner's neck instead of a cross. A spectral ship appeared bearing Death and Life-in-Death, who diced for the crew; Death won the two hundred sailors, who dropped dead one by one, and Life-in-Death won the Mariner. Alone on the rotting sea for seven days, unable to pray, he watched the water snakes in the moonlight, and suddenly a spring of love gushed from his heart and he blessed them unaware. At that moment he could pray, and the albatross fell from his neck into the sea. Rain fell, angelic spirits moved the dead bodies to work the ship, and he was brought home to his own harbour, where a Hermit absolved him as the ship sank. Ever since, an agony returns that forces him to wander and tell his tale. He ends with a moral: he prays best who loves best all things both great and small, for the dear God who loves us made and loves all. The Wedding-Guest goes away a sadder and a wiser man. The poem joins ballad simplicity with a mysterious drama of sin, penance and grace.

Top Lessons

• Sin against creation

  The Mariner's unexplained killing of the albatross is an offence against a creature and against the hospitality of God's world. The poem treats the deed as sin with real consequences.

• Grace before effort

  The turning point comes when he blesses the water snakes unaware. Love and prayer are given before he earns anything.

• Penance and witness

  Even after absolution he must tell his tale again and again. The poem asks how forgiveness and lasting consequence fit together.

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