"Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (day 1)
Vocabulary Quiz on “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
on December 9
Background information on Samuel
Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner"
Learning Targets:
I can determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
I can analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
I can determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.
I can analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
I can evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
In class: reviewing the Romanticism introduction material. Setting the stage for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Review of the literary elements of character, setting and theme.
Graphic organizer handout (copy below)
This is due on Wednesday, December 9
In what genre are we working? poetry
Setting:
Characters
Ancient Mariner
The poem's protagonist. He is unnaturally old, with
skinny, deeply-tanned limbs and a "glittering eye."
He sets sail from his native country with two hundred
other men who are all saved from a strange, icy
patch of ocean when they are kind to an Albatross
that lives there. Impulsively and inexplicably, he
shoots the Albatross with his crossbow and is
punished for his crime by a spirit who loved the
Albatross. He is cursed to be haunted indefinitely by
his dead shipmates, and to be compelled to tell the
tale of his downfall at random times. Each time he is
compelled to share his story with someone, he feels
a physical agony that is abated only temporarily once
he finishes telling the tale.
Wedding Guest
One of three people on their way to a wedding
reception; he is next of kin to the bridegroom. The
Ancient Mariner stops him, and despite his protests
compels him to sit and listen to the entirety of his
story. He is afraid of the Ancient Mariner and yearns
to join the merriment of the wedding celebration,
but after he hears the Ancient Mariner's story, he
becomes both "sadder and...wiser."
The Sailors
Two hundred seamen who set sail with the Ancient
Mariner one clear, sunny day.
Albatross
A great, white sea bird that presumably saves the
sailors from the icy world.
Death
Embodied in a hulking form on the ghost ship. He
loses at dice to Life-in-Death, who gets to claim the
Ancient Mariner's soul; instead, Death wins the two
hundred sailors.
The Night-mare Life-in-Death
Embodied in a beautiful, naked, ghostly woman with
golden hair and red lips. She wins at dice over Death
and gets to claim the Ancient Mariner's soul,
condemning him to a limbo-like living death.
Pilot
The captain of the small boat that rows out to the
Ancient Mariner's ship. He loses his mind when the
Ancient Mariner abruptly comes to life and begins to
row his boat.
Pilot's Boy
The assistant to the Pilot; he rows the small boat. He
loses his mind when the Ancient Mariner, whom he
thinks is dead, abruptly comes to life and takes the
oars from him.
Hermit
A recluse who prays three times a day and lives in
communion with nature in the woods.
First Voice
One of two voices presumably belonging to a spirit.
The Ancient Mariner hears the First Voice after he is
knocked unconscious when the ship jolts forward.
Second Voice
The second of two voices presumably belonging to a
spirit. The Second Voice is softer than the First
Voice-"as soft as honey-dew"-and more
knowledgeable. He explains to the First Voice that
the Ancient Mariner will pay for his crime much more
dearly than he already has.
Major Themes
The Natural World: The Physical
While it can be beautiful and frightening (often
simultaneously), the natural world's power in "The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is unquestionable.
The Spiritual World: The Metaphysical
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" occurs in the
natural, physical world-the land and ocean.
However, the work has popularly been interpreted as
an allegory of man's connection to the spiritual,
metaphysical world.
Liminality
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" typifies the
Romantic fascination with liminal spaces. A liminal
space is defined as a place on the edge of a realm or
between two realms, whether a forest and a field, or
reason and imagination.
Imprisonment
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is in many ways a
portrait of imprisonment and its inherent loneliness
and torment.
Retribution
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is a tale of
retribution, since the Ancient Mariner spends most of
the poem paying for his one, impulsive error of
killing the Albatross.
I am providing below a link to to the poem, so you may listen and review at home.
First, I want you all to review of the major themes. Note these as we work through the text.
Review of literary elements
Literary Elements refers to the typical
structures used by writers in their works to
convey his or her messages
characterization
plot (conflict / climax / denouement or resolution)
theme
setting
mood or tone
NOTES FROM FRIDAY: ELEMENTS OF ROMANTICISM
Love of Nature: Romantic thinkers venerated (REALLY respected) the natural world and the environment.
Idealization of Rural Living: They viewed rural (country- opposite of urban/city) life as ideal and perfect.
Faith in Common People: They respected all people including peasants (not just the elite or 1%!).
Emphasis on Freedom and Individualism: Rather than focusing on groups of people, Romantic thinkers valued individual humans and their individual rights.
Spontaneity (Doing things impulsively/in the moment), Intuition (Gut instinct/Educated Guesses),
Feeling (Emotions),
Imagination (Creating things from one's mind),
Wonder (Awe/When one's jaw drops): All of these concepts are associated with Romanticism.
Feeling (Emotions),
Imagination (Creating things from one's mind),
Wonder (Awe/When one's jaw drops): All of these concepts are associated with Romanticism.
Passionate individual religiosity: Individual humans could worship and demonstrate faith rather than belonging to religious groups or institutions.
Life after Death: They believed that human life did not end in physical death. Heaven existed.
Organic View of the World: They believed that everything in this world was connected- similar to Aristotle's Great Chain of Being.
Name _________________________
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge
Part I
We will be reading the poem as a class. If you are absent,
you are responsible for the material.
Below is the poem and organizer. As we read through the
poem, there are specific vocabulary and figurative language questions for some
of the stanzas. In addition, you will
need to write down the stanzas that contain evidence that support the following
themes. This information will be used to construct an essay. The graphic
organizer will be collected for a 4 day participation grade. In order to
receive full credit, you must complete the all questions, all lined responses
and have 25 thematic examples.
Themes:
- The Natural World (It can be beautiful
and frightening and powerful) (often simultaneously),
- The Spiritual World: The
Metaphysical (The poem occurs in the natural, physical world-the land and
ocean. However, the work has popularly been interpreted as an allegory of
man's connection to the spiritual, metaphysical world.
- Liminality-"The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner" typifies the Romantic fascination with
liminal spaces. A liminal space is defined as a place on the edge of a
realm or between two realms, whether a forest and a field, or reason and
imagination.
- Imprisonment-"The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is in many ways a portrait of
imprisonment and its inherent loneliness and torment.
- Retribution-The poem is a
tale of retribution, since the Ancient Mariner spends most of the poem
paying for his one, impulsive error of killing the Albatross.
1. 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?
2. The bridegroom's doors are opened wide, What is the relationship of
the guest to the
And I am next of kin; bridegroom?
(text) ____________________
The guests are met, the feast is set:
Mayst hear the merry din.'
define din ____________________
3. He holds him with his skinny hand,
"There was a ship," quoth he.
`Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!' define loon ____________________
Eftsoons his hand dropped he.
4. He holds him with his glittering eye -
The Wedding-Guest stood still, write the
simile ______________________
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.
_____________________________
5. The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
6. "The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill, define kirk____________________________
Below the lighthouse top.
7. The sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he! Explain the personification ____________
And he shone bright, and on the right
_____________________________________
Went down into the sea.
8. Higher and higher every day,
Till over the mast at noon -"
The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.
9. The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy. What
does one find in a minstrelsy?
__________________________________________
10. The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
11. "And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong: write out the
personification______________
He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.
_________________________________
12. With sloping masts and dipping prow, where on a boat do you find
the prow?
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe, __________________________________
And forward bends his head,
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.
13. And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
14. And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen: Define dismal ___________________________
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken -
The ice was all between.
15. The ice was here, the ice was there, write out the
personification _________________
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
_______________________________________
Like noises in a swound*!
*swound = god’s wounds
16. At length did cross an Albatross, How did the sailors feel about the
albatross?
Thorough the fog it came
As it had been a Christian soul,
__________________________________________
We hailed it in God's name.
17. It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!
18. And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!
19. In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine; How many days
did the bird hang around? ________
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Why write “vespers” and not days?
Glimmered the white moonshine." ___________________________________________
20. `God save thee, ancient Mariner,
From the fiends that plague thee thus! - What did the mariner do to the
bird? _________
Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."
_____________________________________
Part II
21. "The sun now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came he,
Still hid in mist, and on the left
Went down into the sea.
22. And the good south wind still blew behind,
But no sweet bird did follow,
Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariners' hollo!
23. And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird define to aver
__________________________
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay, What is the crews’ attitude in this
stanza towards the mariner
That made the breeze to blow! for having killed the
bird? (text)__________________
_________________________________________
24. Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious sun uprist:
Then all averred, I had killed the bird What is the crews attitude in
this stanza towards the mariner
That brought the fog and mist. for having killed the
albatross? (text)
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist. ________________________________________________
25. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
26. Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down,
'Twas sad as sad could be; For what reason only did the sailors
talk? (text)
And we did speak only to break
________________________________________________
The silence of the sea!
27. All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the moon.
28. Day after day, day after day, Write out the simile and
explain ______________
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
_________________________________________
Upon a painted ocean.
29. Water, water, everywhere, Hey, there’s plenty of water.
Why can’t they drink it?
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
________________________________________
Nor any drop to drink.
30. The very deep did rot: O Christ! They are in the
doldrums, but what else
That ever this should be!
surrounds the ship? (text) _________________
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.
__________________________________
31. About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night; To what are the
death-fires referring?
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.
_____________________________
32. And some in dreams assured were
Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.
33. And every tongue, through utter drought, Why have the men no voices?
Was withered at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.
__________________________________
34. Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks What did the men
do with the bird?
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
__________________________________
About my neck was hung."
35. "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.
36. 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.
37. 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.
38. With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, How does the mariner
quench his thirst?
We could nor laugh nor wail;
(text)
Through utter drought all dumb we stood!
__________________________________
I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
And cried, A sail! a sail!
39. 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.
40. See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more! What is a ship doing when
it is tacking?
Hither to work us weal; (text)
Without a breeze, without a tide,
__________________________________
She steadies with upright keel!
41. The western wave was all a-flame, Why was the
“western wave…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.
42. 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.
43. Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)
How fast she nears and nears!
Are those her sails that glance in the sun, define gossamer ______________________
Like restless gossameres?
44. Are those her ribs through which the sun
Did peer, as through a grate?
And is that Woman all her crew? Name the two creatures on the boat
Is that a Death? and are there two?
_________________________
Is Death that Woman's mate?
_________________________
45. Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy, What is another
term for Nightmare Life-in-Death?
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold. _______________________________________
46. 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.
47. The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out:
At one stride comes the dark;
With far-heard whisper o'er the sea,
Off shot the spectre-bark.
48. We listened and looked sideways up!
Fear at my heart, as at a cup,
My life-blood seemed to sip!
The stars were dim, and thick the night,
The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white;
From the sails the dew did drip -
Till clomb above the eastern bar
The horned moon, with one bright star
Within the nether tip.
49. One after one, by the star-dogged moon,
Too quick for groan or sigh,
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,
And cursed me with his eye.
50. Four times fifty living men,
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan) How many men are
on the ship? ____________
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropped down one by one. What happened to
them? ____________________
51. The souls did from their bodies fly, -
They fled to bliss or woe!
And every soul it passed me by,
Like the whizz of my crossbow!"
Part IV
52.`I fear thee, ancient Mariner!
I fear thy skinny hand!
And thou art long, and lank, and brown,
As is the ribbed sea-sand.
53. I fear thee and thy glittering eye,
And thy skinny hand, so brown.' -
"Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest!
This body dropped not down.
54. Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.
55. The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie;
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.
56. I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.
57. I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; What does the mariner attempt to
do,
But or ever a prayer had gusht, now that he is
all alone with the bodies?
A wicked whisper came and made
My heart as dry as dust.
______________________________
58. I closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat;
Forthe sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky,
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.
59. The cold sweat melted from their limbs,
Nor rot nor reek did they:
The look with which they looked on me
Had never passed away.
60. An orphan's curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high;
But oh! more horrible than that
Is the curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.
61. The moving moon went up the sky,
And no where did abide:
Softly she was going up,
And a star or two beside -
62. Her beams bemocked the sultry main,
Like April hoar-frost spread;
But where the ship's huge shadow lay,
The charmed water burnt alway
A still and awful red.
63. Beyond the shadow of the ship
I watched the water-snakes:
They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they reared, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.
64. Within the shadow of the ship
I watched their rich attire:
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.
65. O happy living things! no tongue How now does the mariner
observe the snakes?
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
_______________________________________
And I blessed them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
_______________________________________
And I blessed them unaware.
66. The selfsame moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea."
Vocabulary 1 “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Quiz on December 9
1. kin (noun) - one’s family and relations
2. spectre-bark (noun) - ghost ship
3. agape (adj) - agog, wide open, especially with surprise or wonder
4. kirk (noun) - church (term most often used in Scotland)
5. aver (verb) - to state or assert to be the case
6. furrow (noun) - long narrow trench made in the ground or a rut or groove
7. shroud (noun) - length of cloth to wrap a dead person; a thing that envelops
8. gossamer (noun) - a fine, filmy substance consisting of cobwebs, something light, delicate
9. tyrannous (adj) - unjustly severe
10. prow (noun) - the portion of a ship’s bow above water
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