Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Things to Consider:
Superstition/Supernatural
Theological Belief Sytems
Relationship with Nature
Divine Justice
Historical Contexts
French Revolution
Slave Trade and Abolition Movement
Literary Techniques, including:
Personification
Parable
Simile/Metaphor
Rhyme
Terms to Know/Explain (Parenthetical Citations refer to line #s):
kirk (23)
ken (57)
swound (62)
aver (93)
wist (152)
Gramercy (164)
sedge (319)
shrieve (512)
trow (524)
Homework Questions (Parenthetical Citations refer to line #s):
What characteristics of the ballad format does this poem exemplify? What characteristics of the lyric?
580:
Why does the Ancient Mariner (AM) stop the Wedding Guest?
582:
Why does the AM shoot the albatross?
583:
Has the bird been a good or a bad omen? Explain.
Why is the albatross compared to "the cross" (141)?
586:
Why can't the AM pray (248-51)?
587:
Why does the AM bless the water creatures "unaware" (287)? How does doing so help him pray again?
590:
Explain: "He loved the bird that loved the man / Who shot him with his bow" (400-1).
591:
Explain lines 446-51.
595:
What is the final moral to the poem? (See also
Table Talk
597).
Other Discussion Questions:
581:
Why is the Bride "Red as a rose" (34)? What literary technique is being employed here?
582:
What literary technique(s) is (are) being employed in lines 60-62? Explain.
Why is the crew happy to see the albatross (65-66)?
Why does the sun rise upon the right (83) instead of on the left as it has before (25)?
583:
Why is the sun "bloody" (112)?
Why do the boards shrink (120)?
585:
What literary technique is being employed in lines 179-80?
What is a "Night-Mair" (193)?
Why are Life and Life-in-Death playing dice?
586:
Why does the AM compare the souls of the crew to his cross-bow?
Why is the AM's brown and skinny hand so fearful to the Wedding Guest?
587:
Why would "an orphan's curse . . . drag to Hell / A spirit from on High" (257-58)?
Explain the Gloss to lines 263-66.
589:
Why would the resurrection of the dead bodies be more troubling than their being inhabited by angelic spirits?
Who is the Polar Spirit?
590:
Explain the relationship between the Moon and the Ocean (414-21).
592:
How do the images in lines 464-66 compare with those in lines 21-24?
Explain: "The silence sank / Like music on my heart" (498-99).
594:
Why/How does the boat sink?
Explain lines 578-79.
595:
Why has the Wedding Guest been selected?
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