Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
After you have read the poem, discuss the following questions in your groups:
i. Why did the Ancient Mariner stop the particular wedding guest to listen to his tale?
ii. Why did he have to tell his tale to someone?
iii. What is the poet trying to convey through this poem?
Advertisements
Solution
(i) The ancient mariner was feeling himself burdened with the crime of killing the albatross. Other mariners also felt that the ancient mariner was responsible for their suffering. They hung the albatross around the ancient mariner’s neck as a reminder of his sin. Now in order to lighten his burden, he stopped the wedding guest to narrate to him his tale of woe.
(ii) The Ancient Mariner stopped a man on his way to a wedding function to narrate his experience at the sea. Though there was no particular reason for the Ancient Mariner to stop the wedding guest, yet there seemed a kind of moral suggestion to love all men and birds equally. He did not want others to meet the same fate as he had.
(iii) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a balled. Through this poem, Coleridge conveys a message to get close to God through prayer. The Ancient Mariner committed a sin that was rebuked by all. The Ancient Mariner relieved himself of his psychological burden by telling his tale to the wedding guest. The poet associates himself with Ancient Mariner to tell this allegorical poem in order to convey a powerful message to respect all the creatures of the world.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
What was the crime committed by the mariner?
Respect for all forms of life is an essential value. Unmindful destruction of nature and its creatures deserves just punishment. Write in 80−100 words this essential value as brought out in the poem, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.
Using the words given above rewrite PART I of the poem in your own words. The first stanza has been done as an example:
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?
An old sailor stopped one of the three people passing by, who asked: "Old man, with your long grey beard and glittering eye, why are you stopping me?"
Answer the following by choosing the right option from those given below:
The Ancient Mariner stopped one of the three wedding guests because…………
Answer the following by choosing the right option from those given below:
'The sun came up upon the left, /Out of the sea came he;'This line tells us that the ship………………….
Answer the following by choosing the right option from given below:
The Wedding-Guest beat his breast because…………
Answer the following by choosing the right option from given below:
The sailors felt depressed on reaching the land of mist and snow because……
Answer the following by choosing the right option from given below:
'It perched for vespers nine' means………
Answer the following by choosing the right option from given below:
'God save thee, ancient Mariner, /From the fiends that plague thee thus!- Why look'st thou so?' means……….
Answer the following question briefly.
Describe the ancient mariner.
Answer the following question briefly.
What kind of weather did the sailors enjoy at the beginning of their journey? How has it been depicted in the poem?
Answer the following question briefly.
How does the mariner express the fact that the ship was completely surrounded by icebergs?
Answer the following question briefly:
Why does the mariner say that 'no sweet bird did follow'?
Answer the following question briefly:
How does the mariner describe the fact that they were completely motionless in the middle of the sea?
Answer the following question briefly:
What is the narrator trying to convey through the description of the situation in the tenth and eleventh stanza ?
The poem is full of strange, uncanny or supernatural elements. Discuss how these elements appear in the poem. You should consider:
- the strange weather;
- the albatross as a bird of "good omen"
- the spirit from "the land of mist and snow''
- the strange slimy creatures seen in the sea
- the ocean appearing to rot
- the death fires and sea water being referred to as witch's oil
Now write a paragraph about the supernatural elements in the poem and how they add
to the events that take place in the poem.
Imagine that the mariner hears of Mrs Packletide’s hunt and decides to share some advice with her about the impact of wilfully killing creatures. As the mariner, write this letter, in about 150 words, to Mrs Packletide, based on the consequences following your own experience of having killed a creature intentionally.
