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PoetryThe Rime of the Ancient MarinerSamuel Taylor ColeridgeThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

PoetryEnglish
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An old sailor with a glittering eye stops one of three young men on his way to a wedding feast and, holding him spellbound, tells his tale. Driven by storms…

Catalogue details

Author
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Category
Poetry
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

An old sailor with a glittering eye stops one of three young men on his way to a wedding feast and, holding him spellbound, tells his tale. Driven by storms to the icy south, his ship was led out of the fog by an albatross, which he shot with his crossbow for no reason. As punishment, the ship is becalmed under a burning sun, with 'water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink', his shipmates die one by one, and the dead albatross is hung around his neck.

Context and significance

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) wrote the poem in 1797 and 1798, and it opened Lyrical Ballads, the book he published with William Wordsworth that launched English Romanticism. Its strange images, the phantom ship and the water-snakes the mariner blesses 'unaware', have stayed with readers ever since, and 'an albatross around one's neck' has entered the language.

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