It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three,
‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stoppest 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.’
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 listened like a three years’ child
The Mariner hath his will.
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone;
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
‘The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the lighthouse 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.
The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.
The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
‘and now the Storm-Blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:
He struck with his o’ertaking wings,
And chased us south along. […]
And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald. […]
At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog came it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God’s name.
It ate the food it ne’er had eat,
And round and round it flew,
The ice did split with a thunder fit;
The helmsman steered us through!
And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day for food or play,
Came to the mariner’s hollo! […]
‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus! –
Why look’st thou so?’ – With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge remains one of the treasures of English Literature. It is among the very well-known long poems. It is a gem of literature as much for its captivating rhythm and memorable qualities as for the frightful tale it tells and the value of its meaning to the existence of mankind and its critical place in poetry.
This poem belongs to a collection that is among the most important volumes in English poetry. Coleridge composed “The Ancient Mariner” (short title) between November 1797 and March 1798, and published it in Lyrical Ballads, 1798. This volume was put together by Coleridge and his friend William Wordsworth and is regarded as the founding of Romantic Poetry. The introduction by Wordsworth, as well as so many of the poems, is a manifesto for the Romantic Poetry movement, its philosophy and its definition of the nature of poetry.
This movement began its development in the late 18th century and was influenced by a number of political, economic, industrial and social factors. Among these were some of the intellectual forces that fuelled the leadership of the French Revolution, including advocacy for “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” (liberty/freedom, equality, fraternity) used as a slogan by the Jacobins of France. There was a large move towards humanity, enlightenment and the liberation of the so-called common people; there was a resistance to absolute monarchy and tyranny; sentiments against slavery, including the Abolitionist movement; and opposition to child labour.
There was movement away from the rising industrialisation, urban development with an accompanying increase in the working class labour force and their exploitation by factories and industrialists. This included resistance to the ill-effects on nature – the natural environment. There was retreat into the countryside and into nature; more closeness to the folk, and a reaction against the values of the previous age coming out of the Neo-Classical period. The poets put emphasis on emotion and spontaneous expression rather than on reason and calculation. They valued the imagination as a primary quality. They developed quasi-religious approaches to the landscape, including a belief in nature as a living force with telling influence over mankind.
Wordsworth and Coleridge founded the Romantic Move-ment in poetry when they published Lyrical Ballads (1798). A number of the qualities associated with Romanticism are found in “The Ancient Mariner”, a long narrative poem, with a story about nature’s force and influence and the ill effects of man’s violation or disruption of it.
On a bright afternoon during the pomp, ceremony and celebration of a wedding, an ancient mariner stopped one of the chief wedding guests and proceeded to tell him the story of his experiences at sea and the momentous episode of the voyage on which he killed an albatross, a large ocean bird of the North Pacific.
A ship set sail and encountered difficulties when storms drove it into the zone of the South Pole where monstrous blocks of ice impeded and threatened it. An albatross came along, and the sailors befriended and fed it. The bird appeared to have brought them good fortune because the ice suddenly cracked and it led them out of trouble, back to good weather and easy sailing. But the mariner shot the albatross, which was a bad omen, resulting in a reversal of fortunes and terrifying experiences as the ship and its crew went through hell. The mariner survived the terror and was bound to tell his story to others so as to prevent them from repeating his error.
Note in this extract, the power the mariner had over the wedding guest who was hypnotically compelled to listen to his tale while the ritual of the wedding continued. This is significant because a wedding is a rite of passage, symbolic to the continuance of the life cycle. The guest had to listen just as much as the mariner had to tell the tale so the natural processes could be celebrated and continue unimpeded.
Coleridge focuses on the unnatural, the supernatural, the negative and the demonic, which are all forces counter to those of a protective, healing nature when its positive side prevails.
Such has been the impact of this poem that it has given rise to one of the common sayings in the English language: “water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink”. That, however, is a misquote. The correct words are:
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
