Transcript www.wssd.org

The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner
Analysis of Part III
A Presentation by Kylie Teller, Kateri Sloat,
Ian Everbach, and Victoria Price
Stanzas 1 and 2
(Kylie)
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There passed a weary time. *Each
throat
Was parched, and glazed each eye*.
A weary time! a weary time!
How glazed each weary eye,
When looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky.
The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element
afar off.
At first it seemed a little speck,
And then it seemed a mist;
It moved and moved, and took at last
A certain shape, I wist.
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The men are tired, weary, and fading when
suddenly the Mariner sees something moving in
the distance.
Elements of the natural world: the sky beholding
something strange and mysterious, clouded in
mist and then taking form.
Crime & punishment: the men are still being
punished for the albatross' murder with their
lack of water or wind in their sails, Mariner
thinks they're about to be saved (not the case).
Gothic elements: bleak and gloomy atmosphere,
mysterious and supernatural nature of the shape
in the distance.
Symbolism: The mist represents the mystery
shrouding everything and what the mariner does
not know or understand.
Rhyme/alliteration: (italicized/underlined) W in
first stanza, S sounds in second stanza
Glazed eye and weary time repeated stress the
words more
Deviations from stanzaic structure: Stanza 1 is 6
lines and Stanza 2 is 4 lines.
Effect of tone: sets a mysterious, supernatural
foreshadowing for more to come.
Repetition/foreshadowing: the mist and
Stanzas 3 and 4
A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!
And still it neared and neared:
As if it dodged a water-sprite,
It plunged and tacked and veered.
At its nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship;
and at a dear ransom he freeth his speech from the
bonds of thirst.
With throats unslaked, with black
lips baked,
We could nor laugh nor wail;
Through utter drought all dumb we
stood!
I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
And cried, A sail! a sail!
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Repeated lines from the previous stanza - still
stress supernatural foreshadowing
Repetition of words for rhythmic effect
Elements of the supernatural
Polysyndeton, builds rhythm
Symbolism: The ship, initially, represents hope
Repetition/foreshadowing: The sailor's false
hope foreshadows their downfall
Deviations from stanzaic structure: Becomes the
form ABCCB
Anaphora adds to parallelism
Internal rhyme
Parallelism
Crime & punishment: the drought becomes so
severe that the Mariner must drink his own
blood, recalling vampires (more supernatural).
Very creepy!
Effect on tone: This brief moment breaks the
monotony of slow starvation and injects hope
into the narrative's tone
The Mariner's shipmates are faint with thirst
Stanzas 5 and 6
(Kateri)
With throats unslaked, with black
lips baked,
Agape they heard me call:
Gramercy! they for joy did grin,
And all at once their breath drew in,
As they were drinking all.
A flash of joy; And horror follows. For can it be a ship
that comes onward without wind or tide?
"See! see!" (I cried) "she tacks no
more!
Hither to work us weal;
Without a breeze, without a tide,
She steadies with upright keel!"
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Repetition of entire line from previous
stanza
internal rhyme, assonance, adjectival
inversion
gramercy: archaic exclamation of
surprise
sailors begin to celebrate the arrival of
another ship; a dangerous false happiness
"She" as in the ship
tack: to navigate a sailing ship by
manipulating ropes
hither: archaic 'here'
weal: well-being
keel: the ridge under a boat which keeps
it steady
This stanza is what the Mariner calls to
his shipmates.
The ship moves unnaturally, an ominous
sign
Stanzas 7 and 8
The western wave was all a-flame.
The day was well nigh done!
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun;
When that strange shape drove
suddenly
Betwixt us and the Sun.
It seemeth him but the skeleton of a ship.
And straight the Sun was flecked
with bars,
(Heaven’s Mother send us grace!)
As if through a dungeon-grate he
peered
With broad and burning face.
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Irregular stanza: ABCBDB
nigh: nearly
"western wave"
Sunset
starts to see the "strange shape" of the
cursed ship moving eastward
betwixt: between
Shadows appear from the cursed ship
simile: comparing the ship's shadow to
looking through a dungeon grate
parenthetical as a prayer, heightens the
surreality of the circumstance
the Sun the presumed antecedent of "he"
personification of the sun
Tone: unease and fear of the unknown
The sailors spot a ship on the horizon, coming closer
Stanzas 9 and 10
(Ian)
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Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat
loud)
How fast she nears and nears!
Are those her sails that glance in the
Sun,
Like restless gossameres?
And its ribs are seen as bars on the face of the setting
Sun.
The spectre-woman and her death-mate, and no other
on board the skeleton-ship.
Are those her ribs through which the
Sun
Did peer, as through a grate?
And is that Woman all her crew?
Is that a Death? and are there two?
Is Death that woman’s mate?
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The parenthetical takes the reader into
the Mariner's thoughts
The ship (she) is moving unnaturally fast
repetition of "nears and nears" to build
rhythm and suspense
gossameres: a variant spelling of
gossamers, spider-silk
simile: comparison of the ship's rigging to
a spider-web. Emphasizes the foreboding
sense of a trap
Irregular five-line stanza: ABCCB
Transient words connote the swiftness of
death
rhetorical questions: convey the Mariner's
confusion while presenting information
simile: sun shining through the ship's
skeletal ribs as light through bars on a
grate (similar to before)
Anthropomorphism: capitalization of
Woman and Death makes the abstractions
into menacing characters
Stanzas 11 and 12
Her lips were red, her looks were
free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Night-mare Life-in-Death was
she,
Who thicks man’s blood with cold.
Like vessel, like crew! Death and Life-in-Death have
diced for the ships crew, and she (the latter)
winneth the ancient Mariner.
The naked hulk alongside came,
And the twain were casting dice;
“The game is done! I’ve won! I’ve
won!”
Quoth she, and whistles thrice.
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Irregular five-line stanza: ABCCB
"her looks were free" suggests a wildness
Parallel structure in the first three lines
chromatic similes: yellow as gold, white
as leprosy
leprosy: mildly infectious skin disease
wordplay: hyphenation of nightmare
recalls mare, a female horse
description of Death's-mate; contrasts
with description of the bride in Part I
Despite her eerie beauty, she terrifies
the sailors
The cursed ship comes alongside theirs.
Inversion of the verb for poetic rhyme
twain: meaning two
dice a game of chance
internal rhyme in the third stanza
Death and Life-in-Death play dice for the
sailors: Death gets to take the sailors, yet
Life-in-Death keeps the Mariner alive in
torment. This supernatural encounter is
the reason why the Mariner does not die.
Death and Life-in-Death play dice for the sailors' immortal souls
Stanzas 13 and 14
(Victoria)
The Sun’s rim dips; the stars rush out: A
At one stride comes the dark;
B
With far-heard whisper, o’er the sea, C
Off shot the spectre-bark.
B
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No twilight within the courts of the sun.
We listened and looked sideways up!
A
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Fear at my heart, as at a cup,
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My life-blood seemed to sip!
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The stars were dim, and thick the night,
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C
The steerman’s face by his lamp gleamed white; C •
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From the sails the dew did drip—
B
Contrasting light/dark imagery:
Establishes and ominous setting
(quickly, unnaturally)
spectre-bark: the ghost ship
continues to near the crew
The whisper and uncertainty
create ominous foreshadowing
Simile: drinking in the fear of
Death
Darkening scene maintains
menacing tone
hope is fading
white/pale: death
Alliteration creates Onomatopoeia
clomb: archaic past tense of climb
8 line stanza: AABCCBDDB
Stanzas 15 and 16
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One after one, by the star-dogged Moon, A
Too quick for groan or sigh,
B
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, C
And cursed me with his eye.
B
Four times fifty living men,
A
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan)
B
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropped down one by one.
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C
B
At the rising of the Moon, one after another, his ship-mates drop down
dead. But Life-in-Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner.
ominous/evil symbolism
diction is consistent with the
dark, anxious, ominous tone:
groan, sigh, ghastly, cursed
The crew's cursing looks
contribute to TAM's internal
suffering
All of the men are relieved from
their suffering by a (painless)
Death
internal rhyme: establishes
rhythm
Two-hundred sailors die, yet the Ancient Mariner lives on
Stanza 17
The souls did from their bodies fly,— A
They fled to bliss or woe!
B
And every soul, it passed me by,
A
Like the whizz of my cross-bow!
B
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The 200 crew members die, going to
heaven or hell.
Simile/reference to killing albatross: the
guilt from his unpardonable crime
continues to haunt the Ancient Mariner.
Just like his shot at the bird, the souls
flee abruptly. Yet again, the Mariner ends
the section by dwelling on his
unforgivable deed.
The Mariner's thoughts return to the shooting of the albatross
Relation to the Poem as a Whole
Part III is highly significant to the poem's story, telling of the
deaths of his fellow sailors, explaining the reason why the Mariner
is cursed, and showing the supernatural encounter of how such
curse came about. The lonely torment the Mariner experiences in
the rest of the poem is born from his shipmates' cursing looks as
they die and their souls ascend to the afterlife. Artistically, the
repetitive phrases which begin here are used later to evoke a sense
of his boredom and psychological fluidity. Thematically, this
section shows the punishment the Mariner must face for his hubris
in killing an angelic bird. Instead of facing death himself, his
companions must die as martyrs, therein cursing him to live on in
torment, and eventually to wander the Earth in penitence. The
poem suggests that the purgatory of Life-in-Death is much worse
than a painful death yet peaceful afterlife.