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Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner.(Samuel Taylor Coleridge)(Critical essay)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 20060922
Author:Ower, John

In line 111 of the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," (1) the poem's protagonist speaks of the "hot and copper sky" of the equatorial Pacific doldrums in which his vessel was becalmed. The adjective "copper" refers primarily to the discoloration of the firmament (which arises from the reddish light of the "bloody Sun" of line 112, a phenomenon that may be produced by a "dry fog" of volcanic ash suspended in the atmosphere). (2) However, the word "copper" in line 111 is most probably "overdetermined" (3) or polysemous, having a variety of implicit referents. To begin with, the ...

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