The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Reading Guide
Before you read…..
 Obtain the poem, either by purchasing it or downloading and printing from an online source. There were three versions of the poem that were published during
Coleridge’s lifetime. Each was to represent an improvement over the former. The
last version came from Coleridge’s collection Poetical Works and is the most
desirable for our purposes. It contains the Gloss, on on-going commentary that
looks like margin notes. The link on the class website has the gloss.
 You may want to listen to a recording of the poem as you read. One such link is
on the website. You might search for others if you dislike it.
 Avoid reading any foreword or criticism your edition may offer until after reading
the poem. These forwards often act as spoilers to your reading experience or color
your interpretation of the work.
As you read…..
 Take margin notes actively in a manner consistent with the guide.
 As an epic poem, remember that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is both a poem
AND a narrative (story). Though Coleridge uses the poetic form, he is still
concerned principally with telling a fantastic story.
 The mariner's tale, told in the first-person, is set in a third-person narrative about a
wedding. Observe how the poet uses the first person narrative voice to make the
tale more vivid and moving. This juxtaposition can sometimes be confusing!
 Examine the ideas of crime and punishment in the poem and the poet's attitude to
the natural world.
 The poem is full of strange, macabre, uncanny or “Gothic” elements. Gothic
horror fiction was very popular at the time it was written. The poem is said to
have influenced Shelley’s vision in Frankenstein. It is directly referenced in a
chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Watch how these elements appear in the poem.
 The imagery is vivid as the poet describes some spectacular scenes. These are
often memorable in themselves but also stand for (symbolize) other things, for the
people in the poem as much as the reader. Watch for such instances.
 The poet uses effects of rhyme, alliteration (same initial consonant) and pacing
(as in the line "For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky" which suggests
the slow passing of time and the mariner's weariness) and other effects of sound.
Note how these are used by Coleridge to reinforce ideas in the poem.
 Additionally, circle and concisely define in the margins any vocabulary you
cannot decipher in context. Coleridge uses many dialect (regional non-standard)
words and archaic (old-fashioned) spellings of standard words, something he was
condemned for even at the time of first publication. He admittedly attempted to
model the style of the Old English ballad, though most initial readers thought he
took this too far. This complaint was redressed in subsequent additions of the
poem by eliminating or rephrasing certain words, albeit without total sacrifice of
his aim to create something that sounded as though it were from antiquity.

Additionally watch for:
o The distinction between the MYSTICAL and the REALISTIC aspects of
the setting and the journey as the poem unfolds (romantic/mystical
realism).
o The stanzaic structure and when deviations from that structure tend to
occur
o The use of poetic devices, including but not limited to rhyme, alliteration,
and figurative language.
o The effect of tone as the mariner’s tale unfolds both on the reader and the
mariner’s listener.
o The overall intended meaning of this much celebrated and discussed work.
For the Curious: This is a dramatic poem, excellent for reading aloud, or even setting to
music, as one heavy metal group did. Listen to the metal epic “Rime of the Ancient
Mariner” by Iron Maiden (Powerslave, 1984). Did they capture the essence of the
poem???