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The following is an extract from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a long poem in seven parts written by S.T. Coleridge. It belongs to The Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems written by William Wordsworth and Samuel T. Coleridge and considered the starting point of the Romantic Movement in Britain. The poem tells the extraordinary adventure of a sailor who killed an albatross and was horribly punished for his crime against nature. In the stanzas below the guilty Mariner and his crew mates feel lonely and helpless as their ship lies still in a horrible environment.

 

1.Which elements of nature are mentioned? How are they described?

2.Does the scene transmit a natural or supernatural atmosphere?

3.What are the main feelings expressed in each stanza?

4.What stylistic devices (simile, repetition, contrast, etc.) are employed by the poet?

5.What is their function?

 

 

[…]

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,

‘Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

 

All in a hot and copper sky,

The bloody Sun, at noon,

Right up above the mast did stand,

No bigger than the Moon.

 

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

 

Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

 

The very deep did rot: O Christ!

That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy sea.

 

About, about, in reel and rout

The death-fires danced at night;

The water, like a witch’s oils,

Burnt green, and blue, and white.

[…]

 

 

 

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