Page 55 - DENG203_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_IV

Elective English—IV

Notes He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom’s door.

He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn.

Did u know? Imprisonment
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is in many ways a portrait of imprisonment and its
inherent loneliness and torment. The first instance of imprisonment occurs when the
sailors are swept by a storm into the “rime.” The ice is “mast-high”, and the captain cannot
steer the ship through it. The sailors’ confinement in the disorienting “rime” foreshadows
the Ancient Mariner’s later imprisonment within a bewildered limbo-like existence. In
the beginning of the poem, the ship is a vehicle of adventure, and the sailors set out in one
another’s happy company. However, once the Ancient Mariner shoots the Albatross, it
quickly becomes a prison. Without wind to sail the ship, the sailors lose all control over
their fate. They are cut off from civilization, even though they have each other’s company.
They are imprisoned further by thirst, which silences them and effectively puts them in
isolation; they are denied the basic human ability to communicate. When the other sailors
drop dead, the ship becomes a private prison for the Ancient Mariner.
Even more dramatically, the ghost ship seems to imprison the sun: “And straight the sun
was flecked with bars, / (Heaven’s Mother send us grace!) / As if through a dungeon-grate
he peered / With broad and burning face.” The ghost ship has such power that it can
imprison even the epitome of the natural world’s power, the sun. These lines symbolize
the spiritual world’s power over the natural and physical; spirits can control not only
mortals, but the very planets themselves. After he is rescued from the prison that is the
ship, the Ancient Mariner is subject to the indefinite imprisonment of his soul within his
physical body. His “glittering” eye represents his frenzied soul, eager to escape from his
ravaged body. He is imprisoned by the addiction to his own story, as though trapped in
the “rime” forever. In a sense, the Ancient Mariner imprisons others by compelling them
to listen to his story; they are physically compelled to join him in his torment until he
releases them.

3.3.1 Explanation

Three young men are getting dressed to go to a wedding, hoping to party and generally have a
good time. They’re swaggering and laughing as they approach the door to the party. When they
are about to enter the wedding, one of the three guests is suddenly detained by a grey haired old
sailor. The Mariner starts narrating his story as if it was programmed in his brain, and the
Wedding Guest gets impatient. The young Wedding Guest gets angry and demands that the old
Mariner frees him. The Mariner obeys and lets the young guest go. However the young Wedding

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