Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Summary of the Poem

 

By Michael J. Cummings...© 2005

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner begins with a one-paragraph summary called an "Argument." The poem then begins.

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.......Three men are on their way to a wedding reception when an old sailor stops one of them to tell him a story. So eager is the old fellow to tell his tale that he raises on hand to prevent the wedding guest from moving on. The mariner then begins the story–“There was a ship”–but is unable to continue because the wedding guest angrily orders the mariner to cease blocking his way. 
.......But after the old man lowers his hand, the guest cannot continue on, for he is hypnotized by the mariner’s “glittering eye.” Like a three-year-old child eager for a wonderful story, the guest sits on a rock and listens. 
.......The mariner says the ship sailed southward on the Atlantic Ocean with a fair wind. The sun rose from the sea, crossed the sky, and sank in the west in its daily ritual as all went well while ship sailed onward day after day. Even though the wedding guest hears music from the nearby wedding celebration, he keeps his attention riveted on the old mariner and his tale.
.......Alas, a great storm came, the mariner says, driving the ship farther south as it passed through mist and snow to a land of ice, Antarctica. Everywhere the crewmen looked they saw ice. Then, out of the fog, a great sea bird appeared–an albatross. And, wonder of wonders, the ice around the ship cracked, and the ship picked up a wind and sailed north. The albatross, therefore, was a good omen. It came to the ship every day, answering the mariner's “hollo!” It played. It ate of the crewmen’s food. During the evening religious services, called vespers, it perched on a mast or a rope.
.......Then one day, the mariner shot the bird with his crossbow. The rest of the crew condemned his cruel act, saying he had “killed the bird / That made the breeze to blow.” However, when the fog disappeared and the sun shone gloriously, they approved the act, saying he “had killed the bird / That brought the fog and mist.” And so, the crew became partners in his crime.
.......But not long afterward, the sails fell as the air grew still. Day after day, under a boiling sun, the ship hardly moved. It was “As idle as a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean.” And the men thirsted–in the middle of an ocean with water everywhere. They saw slimy creatures crawling on the sea, and at night they beheld a fire dancing on the ropes and chains that control the masts–an ill omen. (Sailors at sea often saw this phenomenon, known as St. Elmo’s fire. It is electricity discharged from pointed objects, such as masts, during storms. The phenomenon can also be seen on land on trees or towers that rise to a point. Today, it can also be seen in the air on wings and propellers of aircraft.) Blaming the mariner for their woes, the crewmen hung the dead albatross around his neck.
.......As each man weakened with thirst and fatigue, the mariner beheld a sign in the sky–a mere speck that grew into a mist and took shape upon its approach. It appeared to be a ship. The men were heartened. But what kind of ship moves without a wind? When the sun was setting, the vessel drew near and revealed itself as a ghostly “skeleton ship” with only two crew members. One was a specter woman–“Life-in-Death”–with red lips, yellow hair, and white skin. The other was her mate, Death. They rolled dice for the crewmen, and Death won everyone except the ancient mariner. He was the prize of Life-in-Death.
.......All the crew–200 men–then dropped dead one by one, all except the mariner. Their souls flew by him, to heaven or hell, like arrows shot from a crossbow. The wedding guest interrupts the narrative at this point to express his fear of the mariner. After all, the old man could also be a departed soul, a ghost. But the mariner assures him that he is flesh and blood, then continues his tale.
.......Now he was alone on the ocean with only slimy sea creatures to keep him company. He tried to pray but failed. The lifeless crewmen, meanwhile, looked up at him with a never-changing gaze, fixed by death. For seven days and nights, he endured their gaze. During this time, at night in the moonlight, he watched the water snakes–“blue, glossy green, and velvet black”–swim and coil. Their sleek beauty touched him, and he found himself blessing them. He also found that he was able to pray; in short, he was beginning to regret shooting the albatross. Suddenly, the albatross fell from his neck and sank into the sea. And then the mariner slipped into a gentle sleep, for which he thanked Mary, the holy Mother who is Queen of heaven. When he awakened, rain was falling and wind was roaring. Although the wind did not reach the ship, the ship began to move–and the dead crewmen rose to man the ship–steering, tugging the ropes. The body of his brother’s son helped him pull on a rope, though he spoke no words.
.......The wedding guest again interrupts to express his fear. But the mariner again calms him and resumes the story, as follows. At dawn, the ghostly crewmen let loose the ropes and made a “sweet sound” mingled with the songs of birds. It was an angelic symphony. The ship sailed on. A spirit, it seemed, was moving the ship. Then the ship began to rock and bob–and suddenly lurched forward, causing the mariner to fall in a faint. When he came to, he heard two spirit voices. One asked whether this was the man who shot the albatross. The other, confirming that it was, said the mariner had done penance for his wrongdoing but still had more penance to do.
.......The ship began to sail northward at such a great speed that the mariner went into a trance. When the mariner woke up, the ship was sailing gently onward. All the dead crewmen were standing together, staring at the mariner. A wind–like a gale across a meadow in the spring–began to blow, tousling the mariner’s hair and cooling his cheek. The ship picked up speed and soon the mariner saw a lighthouse, a hill, and a church. It was his native land at long last.
.......The water in the harbor bay was calm, reflecting the light of the moon. On the ship, the corpses were no longer standing but lying “lifeless and flat.” Over each body was a seraph (an angel), giving off a heavenly light that could be seen on the shore. Soon a boat came rowing forth carrying a Pilot, the Pilot’s boy, and a “Hermit good” singing hymns. The Hermit, who lived in woods near the sea and knelt on moss to pray, loved to talk with sailors from afar. When the boat drew close, the mariner heard them say that the ship looked strange. “It hath a fiendish look,” the Pilot said. Suddenly, the ship sank, rumbling down and leaving the mariner floating helplessly. But in a moment he was in the Pilot’s boat, which whirled round and round. When seeing the mariner’s face, the Pilot fell down in a fit and the Hermit prayed. The mariner took up oars and began rowing. At that, the boy laughed, observing that “the Devil knows how to row.”
.......After the boat reached land, the mariner begged the Hermit to hear his confession and absolve him of his sins. “What manner of man art thou?” the Hermit said. And the mariner told him his tale. Since that the time, the mariner says, he has felt a compulsion to travel from land to land. It is his penance. Whenever he remembers his experience at sea–the terror of it all–he must stop someone to tell him his story in order to relieve his agony. He knows at a mere glance which man he must single out to listen to the tale.
.......The wedding celebration continues while the mariner hears a vesper bell calling him to prayer. It is far sweeter to him to pray to God, he says, than it would be to enjoy the pleasure of a wedding celebration. The mariner notes that a man prays best “who loveth best / All things both great and small”–that is, who loves all of the things that God created.
.......The mariner then walks on. So does the wedding guest, as if stunned. But he is a “sadder and wiser man.”

Characters

Ancient Mariner Old sailor who roams from country to country to tell a strange tale.
Wedding Guest Man on the way to a wedding reception with two other men. The mariner singles out the wedding guest to hear his tale.
Two Hundred Crewmen Ill-fated members of the ship carrying the mariner.
Pilot Boatman who rescues the mariner. (A pilot is an official who guides ships into and out of a harbor.)
Pilot’s Boy Pilot’s assistant.
Hermit Holy man who absolves the mariner and hears his story.
Albatross Large, web-footed sea bird with a hooked bill.  Most species of albatrosses wander the southern seas, from tropical regions down to Antarctica, drinking sea water and feeding on squid, cuttlefish, and other small sea creatures. Sometimes, they follow ships to feed on their garbage. Albatrosses have an astonishing ability to glide in the wind, sometimes for hours, but have difficulty staying aloft without a wind. In the latter case, they sit on the water to rest or sleep. When it is time to breed, they go ashore. An old superstition says killing an albatross brings bad luck, although sailors have been known to kill and eat them. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner has helped make this superstition common knowledge throughout the world among landlubbers as well as sailors. In modern parlance, a person or an event that brings bad luck is often referred to as an albatross.

 

Setting
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The time is the late Middle Ages. The places are as follows: (1) a street or byway in a locale with a hall in which a wedding reception is being held; (2) a sailing ship with 201 crew members, including the ancient mariner; (3) the Atlantic Ocean; (4) the South Pole; (4) the Pacific Ocean; (5) the mariner’s native country (undisclosed). The atmosphere is ghostly, preternatural, mysterious.

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Themes
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Theme 1 Man is a sinful creature, but redemption awaits him if he repents his wrongdoing and does penance. This theme manifests itself as follows: First, the  ancient mariner kills the albatross, committing a sin. Then, during his terrifying experience, he has a change of heart and is sorry for his sin. Finally, after confessing to the Hermit, he carries out a penance, which is to travel the world and tell his tale to strangers.
Theme 2 Man should respect all of God’s creation, of which the albatross is a part. In doing so, he respects the Creator Himself.
Theme 3 Guilt and justice hound sinners until they repent their wrongdoing. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner guilt and justice appear in the form of strange natural phenomena, as well as spirits.
Theme 4 All creatures “great and small” are worthy in some way. The mariner discovers that even the snakes of the ocean can be beautiful.

Date of Publication, Sources
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The poem was published in 1798, then revised and published in 1817 in the version that is popular today. Sources used by Coleridge include superstitions, folk tales, and real-life sea voyages in which crews had bad luck or sailed to mysterious lands. Coleridge also received help from the poet William Wordsworth. The editors of Major British Writers, a literature anthology, explain Wordsworth's contribution:

Originally, Coleridge and Wordsworth intended to write this poem in collaboration. Wordsworth’s manner proved unsuited for the purpose, however, and after contributing half a dozen lines [Part II, Lines 13-16 and Lines 226-227] and suggesting the shooting of the albatross and “the reanimation of the dead bodies to work the ship,” Wordsworth withdrew, and Coleridge proceeded alone.–G.B. Harrison, general ed. Major British Writers. Shorter edition. New York: Harcourt, 1967, Page 592.

Structure, Rhyme, and Meter

Coleridge divides the poem into seven parts. Most of the stanzas in the poem have four lines; several have five or six lines. In the four-line stanzas, the second and fourth lines usually rhyme. In the five- and six-line stanzas, the second or third line usually rhymes with the final line. The meter alternates between iambic tetrameter (with four feet per line) and iambic trimeter (with three feet per line). Following is an example (the first four lines of Part II) of a stanza with this pattern:

.......1...............2..............3...........4
"The SUN | now ROSE | upON | the RIGHT:
......1...........2..............3
Out OF | the SEA | came HE,
......1............2.............3............4
Still HID | in MIST, | and ON | the LEFT
.........1...............2...........3
Went DOWN |  inTO | the SEA.

Main Symbols
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The Ancient Mariner as Adam Adam committed the original sin that brought woe upon mankind. The original sin in this context is the killing of the albatross. The crewmen are inheritors of the mariner’s original sin, just as Christians are inheritors of Adam’s original sin. As the mariner says, "And I had done an hellish thing, And it would work 'em woe." 
The Ancient Mariner as Christian Sinner When the ancient mariner kills the albatross (described in the poem as a holy thing “hailed in God’s name"), he is like the Christian who commits sins for which Christ died on the cross.
Crossbow as Christ's Cross The mariner shoots the albatross with a crossbow, a weapon with the same shape as the cross on which Christ died.
Ghost Ship as Wages of Sin The ghostly skeleton ship carries Death and Life-in-Death. Death, of course, is a consequence of original sin. Life-in-Death is the loneliness, the separation from God, that a sinner encounters before dying.
Pilot The boat Pilot rescues the mariner after the ship sinks, representing the saving grace of a merciful God. 
Hermit The Hermit represents redemption. He hears the mariner's confession and pronounces a penance, requiring the mariner to tell his tale the world over to warn others of the consequences of sin.
Wedding Celebration Everyday life that continues merrily without its participants' full knowledge and respect of the higher rules of the universe. As part of his penance, the mariner educates one of the wedding guests about the importance abiding by the laws of God. The scene of a wedding celebration is, of course, an excellent place for the mariner to tell his story. After all, a marriage is a beginning, and new life will come from it. Will the newlyweds and their children abide by God's laws? Or will they thoughtlessly shoot albatrosses? Perhaps the wedding guest who walks on at the end of the poem will pass on his new insights to the bride, the groom, and others at the wedding feast. 
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Poem as Frame Tale

Note that the author begins the poem by telling the reader about an ancient mariner who stops a man on the street to recite a story. After getting the man’s attention, the mariner then tells his tale. Thus, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is like a framed painting. The frame represents the author telling about the mariner; the painting represents the mariner telling his story. The mariner sometimes quotes another person, such as the Pilot. However, the Pilot is not a narrator, since he is merely speaking dialogue and not telling a story.

Climax
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The climax of the poem occurs when the mariner has a change of heart and the albatross falls from his neck. 
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Imagery
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The poem is rich in figures of speech. Here are several examples:

Alliteration

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

Simile With Alliteration

The bride hath paced into the hall,.................[hath, hall: alliteration]
Red as a rose is she....................................[Red as a rose: simile with alliteration]

Personification/Metaphor

The Sun came up upon the left,.....................[Sun referred to as "he": personification; all personifications are also metaphors]
Out of the sea came he !
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

Paradox and Irony With Alliteration

Water, water, every where,............................[water, water, where: alliteration]
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink....................................[It is ironic and paradoxical that water is everywhere but none of it can be drunk]

Synecdoche With Alliteration and Personification/Metaphor

The western wave was all a-flame...................[wave: synecdoche, because wave refers to the entire ocean]
The day was well nigh done!...........................[western wave was: alliteration]
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun. . . ....................[wave rested: personification/metaphor]

..Vocabulary Words From the Poem

Charnel-dungeon A charnel is a place that contains corpses; a dungeon is a dark prison beneath a medieval castle. Hence, a charnel-dungeon is an underground place for the dead.
Clifts Cliffs
Clomb Climbed
Corse Corpse; dead body
Death-fires St. Elmo’s fire
Eftsoons Immediately; now; at once
Fathom Depth measurement equaling 6 feet (1.8288 meters)
Gossameres Cobwebs
Gramercy Expression of thanks or surprise
Jargoning Chattering; singing
Ken Know
Kirk Church
Line Equator, the imaginary circle around the earth that divides the Northern and Southern Hemispheres 
Mast Tall structure rising from a ship to support sails, ropes, booms, etc.
Minstrelsy Group of musicians
Pilot Boatman who guides ships into and out of harbors
Rigging Ropes that support and position masts 
Rood Old English word for cross, referring to the cross on which Christ was crucified; crucifix at the entrance of a chancel, the space around an altar that is reserved for clergymen or choir members.
Seraph Member of the highest-ranking order of angels, the Seraphim
Shrieve Shrive, which means to hear the confession of a sinner
Shroud Ropes or wires connected to a mast on both sides to keep in from swaying sideways
Swound Swoons; faints
Thorough Through
Tod Bush of ivy or some other plant
Wist Past tense of wit, meaning know; hence, wist means knew.