RIme of the Ancient Mariner

• "skinny hand"


  The Mariner's hand is death-like, skeletal. Reinforces the argument that he is dead?
• "The ice was here, the ice was there, / The ice was all around"


  Ice is everywhere in Part 1 - nature seems cruel. Makes the sun seem even more welcoming in the next part.
• "As if it had been a Christian soul, / We hailed it in God's name."


  Here, the Mariner's crime becomes more than just killing a bird. It is a "Christian soul" - Christ? A human? Does it represent concept of the OAne Life, in which all living beings are equal?
• "With my crossbow / I shot the Albatross"


  The murder occurs. Has he killed Christ? It was with a "cross" bow that the Albatross was killed.
• "The Sun" "Still hid in the mist" A good omen after the "mist and snow"?

  first description of the sun, which is personified as "he". But, it is hiding in mist - is it deceptive, appears to be a good omen but really is not? Reveals the criminal nature of God?
• "sweet bird"


  the Albatross is an evident victim - what adjective is used to describe it by the Mariner?
• "I had done a hellish thing"


  The Mariner's first sign of guilt. How does he describe his crime? His punishment could seem fitting for a "hellish crime" as some critics have argued that his punishment is representative of hell.
• "like God's own head, / The glorious Sun uprist"


  As the sun rises, it is likened to God. God is imposing punishment? Could create visual image of Albatross' blood in the sky. Or could be nature's vengeance.
• "'Twas right", They "thus make themselves accomplices in the crime"


  What do the sailors first say about killing the Albatross? As a result of this, what does Coleridge say in the gloss, perhaps making them criminals too? The voice of Coleridge himself seems to justify their punishment.
• "All in a hot and copper sky, / The bloody Sun"


  The sky is hot and coppery - hellish imagery; God is vengeful? The Albatross' blood taints the sky - suggested by "copper"?
• "As idle as a painted ship/ Upon a painted ocean"


  unrealistic, nightmarish nature of the boat's isolation is presented through the way its idleness is presented as ?
• "Water, water, everywhere/ Nor any drop to drink."

  The ultimate punishment - to be surrounded by the things you desire but denied it nonetheless. Lack of water could also symbolise his moral depravity. It is as if nature is mocking him as well as physically abusing him.
• "slimy things did crawl with legs/ Upon the slimy sea."


  Slimy things: Mariner seems disgusted by nature - is his disrespect for nature the reason for his punishment?
• "The water, like a witch's oils"


  is the water cursed? Element of supernatural at work? Or is he disrespecting nature? Oil and water don't mix. The Mariner's crime has tainted the pure water?
• "We could not speak, no more than if/ We had been choked with soot"

  The mariner can't speak due to dehydration. Instead of water (purity) he is filled with soot - blackness. Moral depravity? Also evokes the sense that he is in hell.
• "Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung"


  The sailors are physical giving the burden of guilt to the Mariner - are they therefore relieving themselves of that burden? People wear the cross as a reminder of Christ's suffering - the Albatross is a constant reminder for the mariner of his crime.
• "A weary time! a weary time!"


  The Mariner, in his dehydration and the length of the journey, is going through a weary time. This stanza is 10 lines long. Extends the "weary time" of the Mariner.
• "With throats unslaked, with black lips baked"


  Throats unslacked and black lips; some have suggested this is representative of the slave trade? Is the poem commenting on a greater crime?
• "I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, / And cried, A sail! A sail!"


  First time that the Mariner imposes punishment/pain upon himself. Is this a step forward in his penance? Christ's blood had healing powers of salvation, and sucking this blood gives him the power to speak. Allegory of the Eucharist?
• "the Sun (...) As if through a dungeon-grate he peered / With broad and burning face."


  As the ghost-ship approaches, it is as if the natural world is being left behind and Mariner is entering a "dungeon" of a new world. The supernatural world? Hell? He is faced with God's wrath as he enters the dungeon of hell?
• "They fled to bliss or woe!"


  the sailors have the opportunity to go to heaven, they have a chance at forgiveness. But the Mariner does not.
• "every soul, it passed me by/ Like the whizz of my crossbow!"


  How do the souls of the dead sailors fly past the Mariner? It is a reminder of his crime, and the fact that it has resulted in death.
• "Alone, alone, all, all alone! / Alone on a wide, wide sea!"


  After the Sailors' death, the Mariner is desperately alone. The assonance and alliteration create an almost echo-like sound, magnifying his loneliness and isolation.
• He "tried to pray" but "A wicked whisper came, and made / My heart as dry as dust"


  What happens to the Mariner when he first tries to pray? He is suffering a moral drought as well as a physical one. It seems even God has abandoned him. He can't even undergo redemption.
• "Nor rot nor reek did they"


  The sailors' bodies do not rot - they do not show visible evidence of being corpses - visible manifestation of the living death that awaits Mariner - the death don't even resemble the dead.
• "where the ship's hug shadow lay, / The charmed water burnt always / A still and awful red."


  The Ghost ship leaves behind a red stain - It has disrupted nature, just as the Mariner did. It still creates a sense of hellish imagery. Even though by this point the sun has gone and the "Moon went up in the sky", Coleridge maintains the hellish atmosphere.
• "the water-snakes: They moved in tracks of shining white"


  this could potentially be the "slimy things" - now they are "shining white" - suggests purity and beauty. He no longer has a corrupt view of nature.
• "O happy loving things!", "A spring of love gushed from my heart, And I blessed them unaware"


  The Mariner begins to appreciate living things and blesses them. His moral drought has now turned into a "spring" - Suggests his hatred of nature and his surroundings was his crime? Here we seem to have hope for the Mariner, he seems to be on his path to redemption?
• "The selfsame moment I could pray" And from his neck "The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea."


  What happens when the Mariner begins to appreciate nature? (two quotes) "lead" shows the burden of his crime. It is as if this burden is relieved, it is as if he has been forgiven. Yet why is he still punished? This presents him as a victim.
• "it rained. My lips were wet, my throat was cold."


  After he learns to appreciate nature, it rains. Since physical drought and thirst have represented Mariner's moral depravity up to this point, the abundant rain could symbolise his redemption. The rain could also symbolise him being baptised anew as a righteous servant of Christ who respects God's creators.
• "the sails, That were so thin and sere"


  Description of the Mariner's boat creates a parallel with the ghost-ship, whose sails are "Like restless gossamers" - which are cobwebs. Has the Mariner become just like Nightmare Life-in-Death?
• "How they seemed to fill the sea and air With their sweet jargoning!" , "an angel's song, That makes the Heavens be mute"


  After the Mariner learns to appreciate nature, the surroundings are filled with angelic voices of spirits who are singing through the dead sailors. Almost heavenly; a sharp contrast to the previous hellish imagery. Is he being forgiven and given a taste of heaven?
• "With his cruel bow he laid full low The harmless Albatross."


  The Mariner falls unconscious, and the Polar Spirits' demons shun his killing of the Albatross. In the late 18th century, animal cruelty was not high on the political agenda. Seems an unjust punishment for the killing of a bird?
• "He loved the bird that loved the man Who shot him with his bow"


  The mysterious Spirit loved the bird who loved the man... Could reinforce the fact that Albatross is symbolic of Christ. It is likely that someone with Coleridge's Christian faith and background would see here an analogy with God who loved his son (Christ) who loved the men that killed him.
• "The man hath penance done, And penance more will do"


  one of the spirits' demons says that despite his penance, the Mariner will do more. Everlasting penance challenges the common Christian narrative of sin, penance, redemption and salvation. Or, is the everlasting nature of the punishment suggesting that he is experiencing hell?
• The dead sailors "All fixed on me their stony eyes, That in the Moon did glitter"


  Once again the sailors curse the Mariner. It's as if his nightmare is repeating itself. Reinforced by: "I could not draw my eyes from theirs, Nor turn them up to pray".
• "he know a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread"


  Even when the curse of the sailors' eyes has broken, the Mariner still feels as if he is being hunted, as if he is prey. He is never left alone, despite his attempts to redeem himself.
• "at an uncertain hour, That agony returns"


  Sometimes the Mariner is filled with agony and is forced to tell his tale. The killing of the "harmless Albatross" was a random and unexpected act. The adjective "uncertain", surely suggests that there is something random about the punishment that the spirits inflict on the Mariner, perhaps making them no better than the Mariner.
• "And till my ghastly tale is told, This heart within me burns."


  The Mariner suffers an endless punishment. Compelled to relive his experience, or his heart burns.
• "I know the man that must hear me: To him my tale I teach"

  The Mariner knows who he must teach his tale to. "teach" reinforces that the Mariner's tale is a lesson - likely a moral lesson. The pious hermit "must hear" the Mariner's tale, yet so "must" the Wedding guest, who has likely gone to indulge in alcohol and food. They are so different - Coleridge reminds us that we are all subject to the same moral laws, and that we are all obliged to obey them.