The rime of the Ancient Mariner
Analisi dettagliata e riassunto in lingua inglese del "The rime of the Ancient Mariner" di Coleridge (2 pagine formato docx)
It is the first ballad of the Lyrical Ballads.
It was written in 1797-98 by Coleridge.
It talks about a mariner and his voyage.
An ancient mariner compels a wedding guests listen to an incredible story about a sailing voyage. The wedding guest is unhappy, but the mariner can mesmerize him, to tell a story. He narrates that during a journey by sea, he and his shipmates meet an albatross that leads them in the clear: at first the crew receives well the albatross, then the ancient mariner kills him and the nightmare begins: the nature rebels them. So, the crew hangs the albatross around the mariner’s neck to punish him ‘cause he has killed the good omen.
Then they see a ghost-ship where the Death and the Dead in life are playing with dice: the first wins the lives of the crew members while the other the life of the mariner. The night comes up and the crew seems dead, on the deck, with the sight toward the sky. From now on 7 long days the mariner survived alone, he can’t do anything and the ship is immobile in the middle of the ocean. The atmosphere is terrible and the surface of the ocean is full of crawling and disgusting creatures.
One day the mariner sees the water snakes and he things they are beautiful: he blesses them. The moment when he blesses them, the albatross on his neck falls down and the bad experience comes end: the crew comes back to life and they come back.
Arriving on the mainland, the mariner meets a wedding guest and he obliges him to listen his story. At the end the man goes away sadder and wiser and he turns the shoulders at the wedding party.