Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Things to Consider:
Superstition/Supernatural
Theological Belief Sytems
Relationship with Nature
Divine Justice
Literary Techniques, including:
Personification
Parable
Simile/Metaphor
Terms to Know/Explain (Parenthetical Citations refer to line #s):
kirk (23)
ken (57)
swound (62)
aver (93)
wist (152)
Gramercy (164)
sedge (323)
shrieve (516)
trow (528)
Homework Questions (Parenthetical Citations refer to line #s,
except
when they refer to a footnote: "#n"): 27:
Why does the Ancient Mariner (AM) stop the Wedding Guest?
31:
Why is the Bride "Red as a rose" (34)? What literary
technique is being
employed here?
What literary technique(s) is (are) being employed in lines
60-62?
Explain.
33:
Why does the AM shoot the albatross?
35:
Has the bird been a good or a bad omen? Explain.
Why is the sun "bloody" (112)?
37:
Why is the albatross compared to "the cross" (141)?
43:
Why are Death and Life-in-Death playing dice?
45:
Why does the AM compare the souls of the crew to his
cross-bow?
51:
Why does the AM bless the water creatures "unaware"
(289)? How
does doing so help him pray again?
61:
Explain the relationship between the Moon and the Ocean
(418-25).
63:
Explain lines 450-55.
How do the images in lines 468-70 compare with those in lines
21-24?
73:
Explain lines 582-85.
75:
What is the final moral to the poem?
Other Discussion Questions: 27:
Explain: "It is sometimes better to represent in the spirit
as in a
tablet, the image of a greater and better world, lest the
mind, used to
the daily occurrences of life, contract itself and subside
completely into
petty thoughts" (27n). How does this thought relate to
the poem as
a whole?
33:
Why is the crew happy to see the albatross (65-66)?
Why does the sun rise upon the right (83) instead of on the
left as
it has before (25)?
35:
Why do the boards shrink (120)?
41:
What literary technique is being employed in lines 179-80?
43:
What is a "Night-Mair" (193)?
47:
Why is the AM's brown and skinny hand so fearful to the
Wedding Guest?
Why can't the AM pray (248-51)?
49:
Why would "an orphan's curse . . . drag to Hell / A spirit
from on High"
(261-62)?
Explain the Gloss to lines 267-70.
51:
Explain the footnote to line 302.
55:
Why would the resurrection of the dead bodies be more
troubling than
their being inhabited by angelic spirits?
59:
Who is the Polar Spirit?
Explain: "He loved the bird that loved the man / Who
shot him
with his bow" (408-9).
67:
Explain: "The silence sank / Like music on my heart" (502-3).
71:
Why/How does the boat sink?
75:
Why has the Wedding Guest been selected?
Explain the Wedding Guest's action after hearing the Ancient
Mariner's
story.
Group Discussion Questions:
If this is to be taken as a Christian poem, how do you
account for the
presence of the Polar Spirit, Death, and Life-in-Death?
Explain by referring
to specific passages from the poem.
Which character(s) in the poem might be associated with Jesus
Christ?
Explain the significance of such associations to the overall
moral of the
poem, referring to specific passages from the poem.
What do the slimy snakes represent? How do they relate to the
albatross?
Explain by referring to specific passages from the poem..
Explain the reactions of the Wedding Guest, Pilot, Pilot's
boy, and
Hermit to the Ancient Mariner, referring to specific passages
from the
poem..
Is justice served in this poem? Explain by referring to
specific
passages from the poem.
