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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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The Ancient Mariner
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(The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 1798)
Narrative poem by *Coleridge in ballad form, a landmark in the *Romantic movement. Its appeal is based on a seductive clarity of language and image, a fast-moving sense of drama, and a constant undercurrent of mystery and horror. These qualities are evident from the opening couplet, which seizes the reader as brusquely as the Mariner himself grabs the wedding guest: It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?'
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The mariner insists on telling how an albatross followed his ship in the Antarctic. For no particular reason he shot it with his crossbow, bringing a curse on the crew. Later, becalmed in the tropics, they ran out of water: Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere
Nor any drop to drink.
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All the crew die except the Mariner, round whose neck they have hung the dead albatross. Not till he has uttered a spontaneous blessing of the water-snakes in the moonlit sea, moved by the beauty of God's creatures, does he find that he can pray again; the dead bird falls from his neck and he sleeps. He is saved. But his penance is to wander the world seeking an ever-new audience for his ghastly and cautionary tale.
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