The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Presented by:Kevin Saladino, Robert Tworek, Annie Gustafson,

Rachel Pelligrino, and Erin Getty

The Meaning

“Respect and honor for nature”

Shown through the use of various literary devices, Romantic Period characteristics, symbols, and themes.

Themes

Sin and Redemption

Terror

Physical vs. Metaphysical World

Respect for Nature

Sin and Redemption

Mariner commits sin

Guilt shadows him

A change of heart

Ends up regretting his sin

Carries out his penance

TerrorTerror shocks into obedience Terror from:

- supernatural figures - death itself

- ghost ship- guilt- isolation- humiliation

Physical vs. Metaphysical World

The curse, because of the albatross’ death, generates bad luck.

His experiences with the metaphysical world bring upon the realization of the beauty of the physical world.

From his experiences with the metaphysical world, he comes to the realization of the importance of nature.

Literary Terms: Part IInversion - line 24- Merrily did we drop.

Anaphora - line 25 & 26- Below the kirk, below the hill, below the lighthouse top.- The ice was here, the ice was there, the ice was all around.

Alliteration- line 42- Merry minstrelsy

Internal Rhyme - line 7- “The guests are met, the feast is set.”

Metaphor - Predator chasing the prey.Onomatopoeia- line 61- : It crack’d and growl’d and roar’d and howl’d.”

Literary Terms: Part I continuedSimile- The icebergs are compared in color to

that of an emerald.

Literary Terms: Part IIAlliteration - line 104 - “The furrow followed free”

Parallelism- Stanza 23 &24 - Shows how the sailors quickly changed their minds on how killing the albatross is bad or good.

Simile –

Line 129 - “The water, like a witch’s oils, burnt green, and blue and white.”

Line 117- “As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.”

Irony- Line 119 - “Water, water every where, nor any drop to drink.”

Literary Terms: Part II continuedMetaphor- line 135 - “We had been choked with soot.”

Implied metaphor- “And every tongue, through utter drought, was withered at the root.”

Allusion- “No bigger then the Moon.”

Personification- “The death-fires danced at night.” “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.”

Inversion- “Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down.”

Imagery- “The bloody Sun, at noon.”

Literary Terms: Part IIISimile-

“And still it near and neared: as if it dodged a water-sprite.”

“And straight the Sun was flecked with bars, as if through a dungeon-grate he peered.”

“Are those her sails that glance in the Sun, like restless gossamers.”

“In every soul, it passed by me, like the whizz of my cross-bow.”

Personification- Death and Life-in-Death are the crew of the ghost ship.

Imagery- “And its ribs are seen as bars on the face of the setting Sun.”

Literary Terms: Part IVSimile-

“And thou art long, and lank, and brown, as is the ribbed sea-sand.”

“Her beams bemocked the sultry main, like April hoar-frost spread.”

“The Albatross fell off, and sank like lead into the sea.”“A wicked whisper came and made my heart as dry as

dust.”

The moon is personified as female (she)

Imagery- “Rich attire,” “Blue, glossy green and velvet black,” and “Golden fire.”

Literary Terms: Part V Allusion-

“To Mary Queen the praise be given! She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, the slid into my soul. By grace of the Holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.”

Metaphor- “I thought that I had died in sleep, and was a blessed ghost.”

Simile- “I heard the sky-lark sing; ...and now ‘twas like all instruments” “The Moon was at its side : Like waters shot from some high crag”

Personification- “Flew each sweet sound, then darted to the Sun” “The Sun, right up above the mast, had fixed her to the ocean : but

in a minute she ‘gan stir, with a short uneasy motion.”

Literary Terms: Part VISimile-

“Still as a slave before his lord, the ocean hath no blast.”

“It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek, like a meadow- gale of spring.”

“The harbour- bay was clear as glass.”“And the bay was white with silent light.”

Alliteration- “Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, yet she sailed softly too : Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze– on me alone it blew.”

Literary Terms: Part VIIPersonification- “This heart within me

burns.”

Extended simile- “Brown skeletons of leaves that lag my forest- brook along; when the ivy-tod is heavy with snow, and the owlet whoops to the wolf below, that eats the she-wolf’s young.”

Allusion- “And to teach, by his own example,

love and reverence to all things that God made and loveth.”

Which sky and ocean smote, like one that hath been seven days drowned.”

Romantic Period Characteristics

Solitary Life

Fascination of the Past

Love of the supernatural

Love of nature