THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER BY S.T. COLERIDGE - (TALES OF INCLUSIVITY) #Bookchatter #WriteAPageADay
I have always been an
admirer of the Romantic poets. Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley are the names that
jump out when we talk about this era, but this post deals with another equally
renowned poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was their contemporary.
‘The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner’ is a poem that influenced me deeply in school, and later on,
when I taught it, which was when all its nuances revealed themselves to me. So
many threads weave together to make this a poem both symbolic and lyrical.
The poem, which first
appeared in Lyrical Ballads, a collaboration between Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798, is
a poem in seven parts, written in loose ballad stanzas of varying lengths.
The poem begins with
a wedding guest who was stopped by an ancient mariner who held him with “his
glittering eye” and forced him to listen to his story. There was a wedding in
progress on board, and the guest was eager to attend it, but the mariner held
him almost hypnotized with his riveting tale.
The saga began with the pacific weather as the ship sailed on merrily, when suddenly a storm blast, “tyrannous and strong” threw the ship off course, followed by “mist and snow” and ice “as green as emerald”. There was ice everywhere, and just when the sailors had begun to lose hope, there appeared an Albatross “as if it had been a Christian soul”. The weather changed with its arrival as the Albatross responded to the sailors’ calls and ate the food they served it.
At the end of Part 1,
the mariner’s expression changes, and the guest is appalled to hear the reason
why. The mariner confesses, “With my cross bow/I shot the ALBATROSS”.
Part 2 of the poem
spoke of the plight of the ill-fated ship after the killing of the Albatross.
The sailors cursed the mariner for having committed “a hellish thing”. He had “killed
the bird/ That made the breeze to blow”. Earlier they had praised him for
having killed the bird that brought “the fog and mist”. Such is the changeable
nature of humankind!
The wind dropped and
the ship stayed still. “as idle as a painted ship/ Upon a painted ocean”. The
sailors suffered agonies for their throats were parched.
“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water
everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
As slimy things
crawled on to the ship, and the drought continued, the sailors were so incensed
that they decided to punish the mariner for his heinous deed.
“Instead of the
cross, the Albatross
About my neck was
hung.”
Part 3 turns even
more gruesome with the appearance of a ship carrying Death and Life-in-Death. Both
cast dice and Death won the crewmen and Death-in-Life the Mariner. One by one,
all the sailors fell dead, two hundred of them, each cursing the mariner for
their fate, Finally, the mariner was left all alone.
Part 4 talks about
the next seven days and nights when the mariner bemoaned his lot, aware that
the eyes of the dead sailors were fixed on him. He realised that he was the one
responsible for the horrific situation and his heart began to repent. He watched
the sea snakes beyond the shadow of the ship and all of a sudden, a gush of
love poured out of his heart for these graceful creatures who moved “in tracks
of shining white”. The next moment, he “blessed them unaware” and the moment he
prayed, “the Albatross fell off, and sank / Like lead into the sea”.
In Part 5, the action
shifts as the mariner slowly began to fathom the beauty and the joy of the
universe. The weather also responded to his change in heart as it rained in
profusion, and the lightning and the moon stirred the spirits of the dead men.
They rose and resumed their work in ghastly silence. The spirits and the moon
guided him on his path to meet the Hermit, who would absolve him of his
grievous sin.
However, the ship
that was sailing serenely suddenly buckled, throwing the mariner into a swoon.
In his soul he heard two voices discussing his cruel deed. One said softly, “The
man hath penance done, / And penance more will do”.
The mariner still
needed to ask for forgiveness, and in Part 6, he suddenly saw the corpses of his
dead companions lying on the deck, and to his astonishment, he saw a figure of
light standing by every corpse.
“A man of light, a
seraph-man, / On every corse there stood.” (corse meaning corpse)
It was time for the
spirits of the dead men to be freed of their worldly encumbrances. As the
mariner watched, entranced, he heard the splash of oars. The Hermit himself had
come towards him, singing “loud his godly hymns”. The mariner needed to ask him
for forgiveness and absolution and pray that he would “wash away/ The Albatross’
blood”.
The mariner’s story
had now almost come to an end. Part 7 describes the Hermit asking the mariner “What
manner of man art thou?” The mariner repeated his gruesome tale to the Hermit,
and as he narrated the incidents, a feeling of relief and freedom came over him.
However, did the
mariner attain redemption? Not really. Since his crime was a senseless one, the
slaying of an innocent creature, even the Hermit could not exonerate him. The
mariner’s penance would be to wander from ship to ship, narrating his woeful tale
to a man who would have the patience to listen to him. In that retelling, he would
experience a brief interval of serenity.
“That agony returns:
/ And till my ghastly tale is told, / This heart within me burns.”
The mariner would pay
the price for his sin through eternity.
The wedding guest listened
to the tale till the end. The wedding party was in full swing within. The
mariner had learnt a vital lesson which he imparted to his listener.
“He prayeth best, who
loveth best,/ All things both great and small; / For the dear God who loveth us,
/ He made and loveth all.”
The mariner left soon
after and the wedding guest was left contemplating on what he had heard, “a
sadder and a wiser man”.
Today, the idiom, "an albatross round your neck" has come to refer to a heavy or inescapable burden or responsibility, one that causes you problems and prevents you from succeeding.
This is one of my favourite poems too. I loved your whole explanation and profound thoughts on it. ❤️
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Monalisa, for your heartwarming comment. This is one of my favourites as well.
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