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Thread: The Ancient Mariner

  1. #1
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    The Ancient Mariner

    What is the big deal about the rime of the ancient mariner? It reads nicely, but I did'nt see anything more than that in it

  2. #2
    Ever Benevolent and Wise
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    Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a romantic, and this verse of his is exceptional imo. It's sad and bittersweet, with a classic theme of penance for bad deed (in this case shooting a sacred albatross)

  3. #3
    String Dancer Shea's Avatar
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    I really liked this one too. My Gothic literature teacher quotes it all the time especially this line:

    "Alone, alone, all, all alone,
    Alone on a wide wide sea!"

    This poem has been the inspiration for a lot of works, ever read Poe's "MS in a Bottle"?
    Hwæt! We Gar-Dena in geardagum,/Þeodcuninga þrum gefrunon,/hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon!
    Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,/ monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,/ egsode eorlas, syððan ærest wearð/ feasceaft funden; he þæs frofre gebad,/ weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,/ oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra/ofer hronrade hyran scolde,/gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs god cyning!

  4. #4
    Drama Queen Koa's Avatar
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    Aaah it's great! I love it... Hard to explain why exactly...well I like the fact that he has to tell the story all over again, doesn't it happen in life, to have to tell something to let it out...? That's how a lot of poems are born, isn' t it?


    Since then, at an uncertain hour
    that agony returns
    And till my ghastly tale is told
    this heart within me burns


    (not sure it's exactly like this, I quoted it from my memory)

    Maybe because I saw these verses for the first time at the beginning of a book by Primo Levi (I sommersi e i salvati....uhm 'the drowned and the saved'?), about his experience in concentration camp during the 2nd world war. The need of the survivors to tell their story...

    Plus of course all the romantic stuff in the rest of the poem, make me dream... (I'd need to re-read it to remember in detail )[/i]
    dead on the inside, i've got nothing to prove
    keep me alive and give me something to lose

  5. #5
    I like the contrast between the wedding party and his tale.
    "Something wicked this way comes" .

    The Mariner says that he comes to those that needs to hear his tale. Why does the bridegroom need to hear it? What is wrong?
    Scary.
    "Man was made for joy and woe;
    And when this we rightly know
    Through the world we safely go" Blake

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