Guided analysis p 257 GUIDED ANALYSIS Answer these questions How can we percieve both the spiritual and physical loneliness the Mariner had to face during his trip and his joy at being again among human beings ID: 756711
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Slide1
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Guided analysis
p. 257Slide2
GUIDED ANALYSIS
Answer these questions.
How can we percieve both the spiritual and physical loneliness the Mariner had to face during his trip and his joy at being again among human beings.
The Mariner’s total (both spiritual and physical) loneliness is pointed out in lines 1 to 4 where the Mariner says he was so lonely that he couldn’t see any signs of the presence of God: “So lonely ‘twas, that God himself / Scarce seemed there to be”.
His joy at being again among human beings is conveyed/expressed, instead, in stanzas 2 and 3, where we are told that he (the Mariner) finds it far “sweeter than the marriage feast to walk together to the
kirk
with a goodly company .... and all together to pray ...” In other words, his pleasure in doing everyday actions (like walking to the church together
with others)
gives us a measure of his joy for being back among human beings.
What is the moral of the story?
That all God’s creatures must be loved and respected: in fact in lines 16 to 19 we
read “He
prayeth
well, who
loveth
well / Both man and bird and beast / He
prayeth
best, who
loveth
best / All things both great and small” .Slide3
Do you think the Wedding-Guest has benefited from the encounter with the Mariner?
Yes, he has. In the closing stanza we understand that the Ancient Mariner’s tale of sin and expiation had made the Wedding-Guest “a sadder and a wiser man”, more responsible towards other living beings.
Now that you have read these closing stanzas go back to the opening ones in Part 1 of
‘The Rime
’. Why can we say that there is a sort of circular structure?
Because ‘
The Rime
’ opens and closes with the Mariner talking to the Wedding-Guest.
GUIDED SUMMARY
Complete the summary with the appropriate words.
Ballads benevolent silent psychological restored supernatural
symbolized to bless tales betrayed
‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’
is one of Coleridge’s most important poems. It is divided into 7 parts, in which the real and the
supernatural
are mixed in a fascinating way. The story is very easy, taken as it is from
tales
in folklore and traditional
ballads
, but what makes it unique is its deep
psychological
study of the difficult relationship between man and nature,
symbolized
by the
Mariner
and the
Albatross.
The Albatross trusts in men, it is innocent and
benevolent
(in fact its presence brings a good wind) but its innocence is
betrayed
by the Mariner’s cruel and inexplicable behaviour. Killing the bird brings bad luck to the Mariner and all the crew: they get lost in a
silent
sea,
Slide4
tormented by drought and a horrible thirst, until the Mariner is able
to bless
the water snakes that crawl around the ship. The spell is broken and the Albatross falls off the Mariner’s neck: communion with life is now mysteriously
restored
. The Mariner has learnt that the only prayer, the only possible communion with God, the Maker of all things, is to love and respect “man and bird and beast”, that is all His creatures.
WRITING NES
You will have noticed that in
the Rime of the Ancient Mariner
real and unreal elements and events intermingle. Go through the poem and distinguish what is real from what might be part of an unreal, fantastic, nightmarish world. (maximum 250 words)
Coleridge
mixes real and unreal
elements and events all through ‘
the Rime’
He gives
realistic details about the wedding feast
(the wedding is going to start; it is possible to hear “the merry din”, i.e. the noise made by the guests, the musicians are preceding the bride and playing their instruments),
and about the Mariner’s native country
(the harbour, the church, the hill and the lighthouse top are mentioned); he is
fairly precise about the position of the sun in the sky
both when the ship sails from the harbour and when it is about to change hemisphere (in fact the sun is initially shown rising from the left and setting to the right but when they reach the equator the sun at noon is shown perpendicular to the ship, right over the ship mast). Coleridge describes
the changes of weather at sea
(the initial good wind and fair weather are replaced by a storm that drives the ship southward to the South Pole, then again a good south wind pushes the ship northward, finally the wind drops and the ship is stuck on the ocean). Slide5
On the other hand
,
real creatures and natural elements are endowed with a fantastic, magic and somehow nightmarish power
: the old Mariner, who comes from nowhere, has a hypnotic power and is compelled by a mysterious force to tell his story. The Albatross seems to have supernatural powers; unnatural creatures, which look like spirits or sea monsters, inhabit the sea. The ice makes nightmarish sounds, the sun looks bloody, and the sea seems to burn with strange colours. (267 words)