The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

By Samuel Coleridge

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Poem relates the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding-guest's reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the mariner's story progresses, as can be seen in the language style: Coleridge uses narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create a sense of danger, the supernatural, or serenity, depending on the mood in different parts of the poem. Along with other poems in Lyrical Ballads, it was a signal shift to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic literature. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sharp Ink
• Release date: May 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9788028218379

Samuel Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet and philosopher who, with fellow poet William Wordsworth, founded the Romantic Movement in England. In addition to penning the celebrated poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, Coleridge was an influential scholar, whose work on William Shakespeare reintroduced the playwright’s work to contemporary writers. He is also credited with helping introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speakers. Coleridge’s poetical work would later influence Ralph Waldo Emerson and the American transcendentalist movement.

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Part the First.

Table of Contents

It is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,

Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?

"The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide,

And I am next of kin;

The guests are met, the feast is set:

May’st hear the merry din."

Wherefore stopp'st thou me?

Wherefore stopp'st thou me?

He holds him with his skinny hand,

There was a ship, quoth he.

Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!

Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

He holds him with his glittering eye —

The Wedding–Guest stood still,

And listens like a three years child:

The Mariner hath his will.

The Wedding Guest

The Wedding Guest

The Wedding–Guest sat on a stone:

He cannot chuse but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner.

The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the light-house top.

The 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.

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon —

The Wedding–Guest here beat his breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

Red as a Rose is the Bride