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Elective English—IV

Notes tells of both powerful genius and pain. He can compel others to listen to his story from
beginning to end, but is forced to do so to relieve his pain. The Ancient Mariner is caught
in a liminal state that, as in much of Romantic poetry, is comparable to addiction. He can
relieve his suffering temporarily by sharing his story, but must do so continually. The
Ancient Mariner suffers because of his experience in the “rime” and afterwards, but has
also been extremely close to the divine and sublime because of it. Therefore his curse is
somewhat of a blessing; great and unusual knowledge accompanies his pain. The Wedding
Guest, the Hermit, and all others to whom he relates his tale enter into a momentary
liminal state themselves where they have a distinct sensation of being stunned or
mesmerized.

3.3.2 Critical Analysis

Form

Written by Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is written in loose, short ballad
stanzas commonly about four or six lines long however, seldom, as many as nine lines long. The
meter is also loose to some extent, but odd lines are usually tetrameter, while even lines are
called trimeter. (There are exclusions: In a five-line stanza, for example, lines one, three, and
four may possibly have four accented syllables—tetrameter—while lines two and five have
three accented syllables.)

The rhymes are normally alternated in an ABAB or ABABAB scheme. Here also there are several
exceptions; for example, in the nine-line stanza in Part III, rhymes AABCCBDDB are used.
Various stanzas consist of couplets in this way—five-line stanzas, for instance, are rhymed
ABCCB, frequently with an internal rhyme in the first line, or ABAAB, without any internal
rhyme.

Commentary

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a unique and exclusive poem written by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge. It is unique in its purposefully archaic language (“Eftsoons his hand drops he”), its
thematic vagueness, its strange moral narrative, its length, and its odd scholarly notes written in
small type in the margins, and the extended Latin epigraph that begins it, relating to the multitude
of unclassifiable “invisible creatures” that live in the world. Its uniqueness makes it rather
unusual from the works of its era; it doesn’t have much in common with other Romantic creations.
Rather, the epigraph, the scholarly notes, and the archaic language combine to leave an impression
(planned by Coleridge) that the “Rime” is a ballad of earlier times (like “Sir Patrick Spence,”
which appears in “Dejection: An Ode”), republished with descriptive notes for a new audience.
Then again the explanatory notes confuse, rather than clarifying, the poem as a whole. There are
also times when they clarify some unspoken action. At other times they interpret the content of
the poem in a manner that appears odd or inappropriate to, the poem itself. For example, a note
can be found in Part II, relating to the spirit that went behind the ship nine fathoms deep: “one
of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither departed souls nor angels; concerning whom
the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be
consulted.” What may Coleridge mean by presenting such figures as “the Platonic
Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus,” into the poem, as marginalia, and by suggesting that the
verse itself must be interpreted through him?
This question has confused scholars since the very first time the poem was published in this
form. Remarkably, the actual version of the “Rime,” in the 1797 edition of Lyrical Ballads, did not
consist of any side notes. There is surely a component of humour in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s

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