Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
Why does the ancient Mariner compel the wedding guest to listen to his story?
Advertisements
Solution
The ancient mariner compels the wedding guest to listen to his story because he is driven by guilt for killing the albatross and suffers from agony. He wanders around from place to place to tell his story to different people because when he tells his story to someone he is temporarily relieved from his agony. Besides, he also wants to preach the lesson he learnt from the incident that took place to other people. The mariner has the power of sensing whom he should tell the tale. He says towards the end of the poem that the moment he sees a man’s face, he knows whether he should tell him the story or not. Thus, in a way he is bound to tell his story to the wedding guest.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
Here are some of the archaic words used in the poem; can you match them with the words used in modern English language that mean the same? The first one has been done for you as an example:
| stoppeth | why |
| thy | entered |
| wherefore | stopped |
| stopp'st | you |
| thou | lunatic |
| may'st | at once |
| quoth | fainting fit |
| loon | has |
| eftsoons | can't you |
| dropt | stopping |
| hath | church |
| spake | enemy |
| kirk | yes |
| paced | see |
| foe | call |
| aye | trouble |
| en | looking |
| swound | your |
| hollo | said |
| plague | dropped |
| look'st | spoke |
Answer the following by choosing the right option from those given below:
'He cannot choose but hear' means………
Answer the following by choosing the right option from given below:
'It perched for vespers nine' means………
Answer the following question briefly.
Describe the ancient mariner.
Answer the following question briefly.
How does the mariner describe the movement of the ship as it sails away from the land?
Answer the following question briefly:
Why does the mariner say that 'no sweet bird did follow'?
Answer the following question briefly:
How did the other mariners behave towards the Ancient Mariner at first? How many times did they change their mind about the Ancient Mariner? What does this tell us about their character?
Answer the following question briefly:
How did the sailing conditions change after the ship had moved out of the land of mist and snow? What or who did the mariners blame for this change?
Answer the following question briefly:
What is the irony in the ninth stanza? Explain it in your own words.
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.
