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The poem’s main text concerns an anonymous elderly Mariner who draws a young man away from his companion’s wedding celebration to tell him a story. This story recounts his experience of wrongfully killing an albatross and the harrowing spiritual journey that followed.
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The poem begins by introducing the Ancient Mariner, who, with his glittering eye, stops a Wedding Guest from attending a nearby wedding celebration. The Mariner stops the young man to tell him the story of a ship, providing no introduction but simply beginning his tale. Despite the Wedding Guests efforts to leave, the Mariner continues to speak. Th...
In this terrible calm, trapped completely by the watery ocean that they cannot drink, the men on the ship grow so thirsty that they cannot even speak. When the Mariner sees what he believes is a ship approaching, he must bite his arm and drink his own blood so that he is able to alert the crew, who all grin out of joy. But the joy fades as the ghos...
Surrounded by the dead Sailors and cursed continuously by their gaze, the Mariner tries to turn his eyes to heaven to pray, but fails. It is only in the Moonlight, after enduring the horror of being the only one alive among the dead crew that the Mariner notices beautiful Water Snakes swimming beside the ship. At this moment he becomes inspired, an...
This is an abridged summary and analysis of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." For the complete study guide (including quotes, literary devices, analysis of the speaker, and more), click here. Summary. Three young men are walking together to a wedding, when one of them is detained by a grizzled old sailor.
Short summary: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a long poem written in loose ballad form. The poem is archaic in language, making it unusual for its time, standing apart from other contemporary Romantic poems. The poem follows the Ancient Mariner as he travels at sea. In an act of selfishness and/or immorality, he kills an Albatross.
- An ancient mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding. The wedding guest is eager to get to the feast, but the ancient mariner “holds him with his skinny hand” and insists on telling him a story.
- The mariner’s shipmates were angry with him for killing the albatross, since they believed it had brought the favorable wind with it. However, when the sun rose, they changed their minds, saying that the albatross had brought the fog and mist, and the mariner was right to slay it.
- It was a “weary time” for all the sailors. Looking westward, the ancient mariner finally saw something on the horizon, no bigger than a speck. The shape “plunged and tacked and veered” across the water, until the ancient mariner could finally see what it was, yet his mouth was too dry for him to speak.
- The wedding guest interrupts the ancient mariner, expressing fear that he seems unearthly and may be a ghost. The mariner reassures him that he alone did not die.
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a narrative-driven ballad written by the British Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The poem centers on an anonymous Mariner who recounts a story about how he once wrongfully killed an albatross and went on a harrowing spiritual journey to right this wrong.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Summary. An Ancient Mariner, unnaturally old and skinny, with deeply-tanned skin and a "glittering eye", stops a Wedding Guest who is on his way to a wedding reception with two companions. He tries to resist the Ancient Mariner, who compels him to sit and listen to his woeful tale.
