summary of the rime of the ancient mariner

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Summary

Three guys are on the way to a wedding celebration when an old sailor (the Mariner) stops one of them at the door (we'll call him the Wedding Guest). Using his hypnotic eyes to hold the attention of the Wedding Guest, he starts telling a story about a disastrous journey he took. The Wedding Guest really wants to go party, but he can't pry himself away from this grizzled old mariner. The Mariner begins his story. They left port, and the ship sailed down near Antarctica to get away from a bad storm, but then they get caught in a dangerous, foggy ice field. An albatross shows up to steer them through the fog and provide good winds, but then the Mariner decides to shoot it. Oops.

Pretty soon the sailors lose their wind, and it gets really hot. They run out of water, and everyone blames the Mariner. The ship seems to be haunted by a bad spirit, and weird stuff starts appearing, like slimy creatures that walk on the ocean. The Mariner's crewmates decide to hang the dead albatross around his neck to remind him of his error.

Everyone is literally dying of thirst. The Mariner sees another ship's sail at a distance. He wants to yell out, but his mouth is too dry, so he sucks some of his own blood to moisten his lips. He's like, "A ship! We're saved." Sadly, the ship is a ghost ship piloted by two spirits, Death and Life-in-Death, who have to be the last people you'd want to meet on a journey. Everyone on the Mariner's ship dies.

The wedding guest realizes, "Ah! You're a ghost!" But the Mariner says, "Well, actually, I was the only one who didn't die." He continues his story: he's on a boat with a lot of dead bodies, surrounded by an ocean full of slimy things. Worse, these slimy things are nasty water snakes. But the Mariner escapes his curse by unconsciously blessing the hideous snakes, and the albatross drops off his neck into the ocean.

The Mariner falls into a sweet sleep, and it finally rains when he wakes up. A storm strikes up in the distance, and all the dead sailors rise like zombies to pilot the ship. The sailors don't actually come back to life. Instead, angels fill their bodies, and another supernatural spirit under the ocean seems to push the boat. The Mariner faints and hears two voices talking about how he killed the albatross and still has more penance to do. These two mysterious voices explain how the ship is moving.

After a speedy journey, the ship ends up back in port again. The Mariner sees angels standing next to the bodies of all his crewmates. Then a rescue boat shows up to take him back to shore. The Mariner is happy that a guy called "the hermit" is on the rescue boat. The hermit is in a good mood. All of a sudden there's a loud noise, and the Mariner's ship sinks. The hermit's boat picks up the Mariner.

When they get on shore, the Mariner is desperate to tell his story to the hermit. He feels a terrible pain until the story had been told.

In fact, the Mariner says that he still has the same painful need to tell his story, which is why he stopped the Wedding Guest on this occasion. Wrapping up, the Mariner tells the Wedding Guest that he needs to learn how to say his prayers and love other people and things. Then the Mariner leaves, and the Wedding Guest no longer wants to enter the wedding. He goes home and wakes up the next day, as the famous last lines go, "a sadder and a wiser man."

S.T. Coleridge's Rime of Ancient Mariner is a narrative poem that recounts the dreaded supernatural experience undergone by a sailor in the sea after killing an albatross, a sea bird, out of a sudden impulse. The poem is allegorical, i.e., there is hidden meaning in the text. The poem, in fact, brings forth the Christian theme of sin, penance and redemption. The poem expresses how a thoughtless deed committed out of impulse results in a life time of guilt and repentance. Written in the ballad form with regular rhyme scheme, the poem is full of beautiful lines and archaic words.

The poem begins abruptly with the description of an old man with strange looks standing outside a wedding party. This old man is the Ancient Mariner who tries to stop one of the wedding guests, intending to tell him something very significant and confidential. The wedding guest tries to get rid of him pleading that it is very necessary on his part to get fully involved in the wedding party as he happened to be a close relative of the bride. At first, the ancient mariner tries to catch hold of him by the hands. The wedding guest manages to shirk away his hands. However, the ancient mariner prevails upon the wedding guest with his (ancient mariner) attractive look. Unable to get rid of the spell of the ancient mariner's looks, the wedding guest sits on a stone and starts listening to the ancient mariner like a three year child.

The ancient mariner recounts how he along with other travellers set out for a voyage across the sea. The weather was quite pleasant at that time. However, as time passed a turbulent storm hit them leading them to flee south wards. Suddenly, they could experience the gradual freezing of the sea. There was mist also. There was ice everywhere. Every thing came to a standstill. Days passed in this condition until an albatross appeared mysteriously. All the voyagers hailed the albatross as a symbol of hope. It became very friendly with them, ate with them and sported with them. The condition of the sea miraculously improved on its arrival. But one day out of an impulse the ancient mariner killed the albatross with his crossbow. In the process, a sin was committed by the ancient mariner.

However, immediately after the incident everything was quite normal. Everybody in the ship started condemning the ancient mariner for such a heinous act. After some days everything took a different turn. The sail stopped, the sun become too hot, there was not a drop of water to drink. Life on the sea became unbearable. Ultimately, the ancient mariner had to do penance for killing the albatross.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Summary

Three guys are on the way to a wedding celebration when an old sailor (the Mariner) stops one of them at the door (we 'll call him the Wedding Guest). Using his hypnotic eyes to hold the attention of the Wedding Guest, he starts telling a story about a disastrous journey he took. The Wedding Guest really wants to go party, but he can 't pry himself away from this grizzled old mariner. The Mariner begins his story. They left port, and the ship sailed down near Antarctica to get away from a bad storm, but then they get caught in a dangerous, foggy ice field. An albatross shows up to steer them through the fog and provide good winds, but then the Mariner decides to shoot it. Oops.

Pretty soon the sailors lose their wind, and it gets really hot. They run out of water, and everyone blames the Mariner. The ship seems to be haunted by a bad spirit, and weird stuff starts appearing, like slimy creatures that walk on the ocean. The Mariner 's crewmates decide to hang the dead albatross around his neck to remind him of his error.

Everyone is literally dying of thirst. The Mariner sees another ship 's sail at a distance. He wants to yell out, but his mouth is too dry, so he sucks some of his own blood to moisten his lips. He 's like, "A ship! We 're saved." Sadly, the ship is a ghost ship piloted by two spirits, Death and Life-in-Death, who have to be thelast people you 'd want to meet on a journey. Everyone on the Mariner 's ship dies.

The wedding guest realizes, "Ah! You 're a ghost!" But the Mariner says, "Well, actually, I was the only one who didn 't die." He continues his story: he 's on a boat with a lot of dead bodies, surrounded by an ocean full of slimy things. Worse, these slimy things are nasty water snakes. But the Mariner escapes his curse by unconsciously blessing the hideous snakes, and the albatross drops off his neck into the ocean.

The Mariner falls into a sweet sleep, and it finally rains when he wakes up. A storm strikes up in the distance, and all the dead sailors rise like zombies to pilot the ship. The sailors don 't actually come back to life. Instead, angels fill their bodies, and another supernatural spirit under the ocean seems to push the boat. The Mariner faints and hears two voices talking about how he killed the albatross and still has more penance to do. These two mysterious voices explain how the ship is moving.

After a speedy journey, the ship ends up back in port again. The Mariner sees angels standing next to the bodies of all his crewmates. Then a rescue boat shows up to take him back to shore. The Mariner is happy that a guy called "the hermit" is on the rescue boat. The hermit is in a good mood. All of a sudden there 's a loud noise, and the Mariner 's ship sinks. The hermit 's boat picks up the Mariner.

When they get on shore, the Mariner is desperate to tell his story to the hermit. He feels a terrible pain until the story had been told.

In fact, the Mariner says that he still has the same painful need to tell his story, which is why he stopped the Wedding Guest on this occasion. Wrapping up, the Mariner tells the Wedding Guest that he needs to learn how to say his prayers and love other people and things. Then the Mariner leaves, and the Wedding Guest no longer wants to enter the wedding. He goes home and wakes up the next day, as the famous last lines go, "a sadder and a wiser man."

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:-
Summary: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is one of the longest poems that S.T.Coleridge wrote. The poem reflects all the supernatural events that a mariner experiences on a long and tedious sea voyage. The poem begins with the mariner stopping a wedding guest on his way to a wedding ceremony in order to narrate his tale of agony. The mariner’s tale is about a ship which leaves its native harbour. Initially, all goes well and the ship smoothly sails across the seas. However, misfortune strikes as the voyage darkens and the ship is caught in a labyrinth of ice. An albatross appears in the scene and it leads the ship out of the ice. However, the mariner shoots the bird for reasons unknown. This act of killing the bird invites the wrath of the supernatural spirits who then pursue the ship. These supernatural spirits subject the crew as well as the mariner to a series of excruciating events. The ship is lead from ice to uncharted waters, where the sailors are tormented by thirst. As a reaction to their pitiable state, they blame the mariner and hang the corpse of the albatross around the mariner’s neck. Hopes of salvation run high when everyone on board notices a tiny speck which they imagine to be a ship. However, as it draws closer they realize that it is a skeleton (Death) and the nightmare (Life- in -death) on board the skeletal skull of a ship. They were playing dice for the souls of the crew of the ship and Death wins over the lives of the crew members and life- in -death that of the mariner. All the crew members drop dead one by one, but the mariner survives while experiencing a fate worse than death as punishment for his killing of the albatross. The mariner relates to the wedding guest that he saw the glare of those dead men for seven days. At last as soon as the moon rose, the mariner sees the water snakes that move through the silvery moonlight, and instantly he blesses those beautiful creatures of the sea, in his heart.
At this dramatic moment, his curse is finally lifted, and the albatross falls from his neck symbolizing that his guilt is expiated to a great extent. The body of the crew possessed by good spirits rise and the mariner falls into a trance. He is quite unaware of what happened until he hears the voices of two angelic spirits whose conversation reveals that the ship was maneuvered by heavenly forces. The mariner gets out of his trance, and when he awakes the spell breaks and he finds himself among his dear and familiar landmarks. The angelic spirits depart from the bodies of the crew and standing on top of each lifeless form was a seraph man. The mariner is pulled into a boat and he is rescued. The penitent mariner pleads to the Holy Hermit to bless him and purge him off his sin. As soon as the man of God asked him what kind of man he was, an agony of spirit prompts the ancient mariner to narrate his tale. This provides him with a sense of relief for a brief period from the curse of remembrance. Thus, the ancient mariner winds up his story. He tells the wedding guest that ever since the Holy Man had blessed him, he has been obliged to traverse across lands, being unaware of when his agony of remembrance might return .But, whenever the curse weighs on his soul, he recognizes the face of a man with whom he must share his measure of love and reverence for God’s creation. The wedding guest eventually does not attend the wedding. So, moved is he by the tale of the ancient mariner that he departs a sadder and wiser man.

A Short Synopsis of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Part I: The Wedding guest, the voyage, stuck in ice, he kills the albatross.

The Mariner stops a wedding guest and forces him, spellbound, to listen to his story.

The ship sails south to equator.

Wedding guest hears music of wedding beginning.

A storm hits the ship and impels it south. They are stuck in ice.

An albatross appears and is befriended by the shipmates. A south wind springs up and takes them northward.

He kills it with his crossbow.

Part II: They suffer punishment for his crime and are becalmed.

The crew at first cry out against him, but then commend him when the fog clears off.

They sail north and become becalmed at the equator. They suffer from thirst. Slimy things are on the surface, and lights are on the water and masts at night.

A spirit follows them under the ship nine fathoms down.

They hang the bird around his neck.

Part III: A skeleton ship comes, and its ghastly crew gambles for their souls. The crew dies.

He sees a ship far off. They rejoice thinking they are saved, but then despair when they wonder how a ship can sail without wind.

It is a skeleton ship with only a woman, Life-in-Death, and a mate, Death, for crew.

They play dice for the crew and she wins. The sun sets and the skeleton ship departs.

The crew dies, one by one, and their souls fly out.

Part IV: He is left alone for seven days. He blesses the water snakes, and the spell is broken.

The wedding guest is afraid that he is speaking to a ghost, but the Mariner assures him that he did not die.

He is left alone and tries to pray but cannot. For seven days he looks at the dead men and cannot die.

He sees the water snakes by the light of the moon. He blesses them and is able to pray. The albatross falls from his neck.

Part V: It rains. The ship is moved north, its crew reanimated by spirits. He swoons and hears two voices.

He sleeps and awakens to find it raining. A roaring wind and storm comes, and the dead crew rises and mans the ship.

The wedding guest is afraid, but is reassured that it is not the souls of the dead men that reanimate them, but a troop of spirits blest. They sing around the mast at dawn till noon, continuing to sail moved on from beneath.

The spirit from the snow and ice moves them to the equator again, and the ship stands still. It moves back and forth then makes a sudden bound. He swoons.

He hears two voices in his sleep tell of his crime and trials.

Part VI: The two voices talk. He wakes up in his native land. The spirits signal the shore, and a boat appears.

The two voices talk back and forth as the ship is impelled northward faster than any human could endure.

He wakes up and the ship sails slowly now. The crew is still up, and their eyes curse him still.

The spell is broken and a sweet breeze blows on him alone. He sees his native country.

The spirits leave the dead bodies and each appears in its own form, full of light. They stand as signals to the land, but make no sound.

A boat is heard coming to him. The Pilot, his boy, and the Hermit are in the boat. He hopes that the Hermit will shrieve his soul to wash away the blood of the albatross.

Part VII: The ship sinks but he is saved. He is compelled to wander and tell his tale.

The Hermit who lives in the woods there loves to talk to mariners from far off.

The lights of the signal have disappeared, and the boat appears warped, the sails like skeletons.

As they approach a rumble is heard under the water. The ship splits and sinks.

His body floats and is found and dragged aboard the boat. When he moves his lips they scream. He rows the boat.

When they reach land he begs the Hermit to shrieve him. The Mariner is overcome by a fit which forces him to tell his tale. Since then, he has had to travel from land to land and tell his tale. He has powers of speech and knows the men to whom he must tell his tale.

The sounds of merriment come from the wedding party within. He tells how sweet it is for him to have company after being alone on the sea and tells the wedding guest to love all thing both great and small.

The wedding guest leaves and rose the next morn wiser and sadder.

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A Short Synopsis of Coleridge's

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"