Wonderful. Thank you for starting a thread with "Ballads of the Sea."
I am taking an English Class and we are reading Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
It is a wonderful poem, and very descriptive of life at sea. I am reposting my class assignment here. It is a close reading of: Part One, Lines 20-60
You will find the entire poem here, and this is my source for the text:
http://www.enotes.com/rime-ancient-t...ncient-mariner
Enjoy!
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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (page 906)
A portion of this poem: Part 1, Lines 20-60
We have a wedding guest listening to an old sailor telling tales about the sea during a wedding ceremony. The first part describes the departure of a ship:
The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
A crowd cheers the ship's departure from the port, as it sails out to sea, leaving the harbour behind.
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the light-house top.
I particularly like this description of what it is like to head out to sea, as you watch the horizon change from land to water. "Merrily" because there is a freedom as you leave the constraints of land-life, or leave behind "land lubbers" who represent problems and alienation to many sailors. The seafaring life is peaceful, and carefree in some ways. Except you are faced with the power of nature. As you get farther from the shore it appears that you are dropping, as you watch the skyline vanish from sight. Obviously a church steeple sticks up high on the horizon, first you watch the steeple vanish, then the hills behind it, and finally a "light house top" that might be located at a very high point on a piece of land that juts out from the coastline.
The Sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.
(The Mariner tells how
the ship sailed southward
with a good wind
and fair weather, till it
reached the Line.)
Now there is water all around with no land in sight. It is stunning to watch the sun rise out of the ocean in the morning--- and set into the ocean at the end of the day. This description speaks of it, and ads that the sun sets "on the right" -- meaning not straight across, as they are approaching the line of the equator. The sun is described as "He", this expresses that individual components of nature posses their own traits and individuality. "It" can be ignored, but when referred to as"He" is a force to be reckoned with.
Higher and higher every day,
Till over the mast at noon-
And when they reach the line the sun is directly overhead at noon.
The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,(30)
For he heard the loud bassoon.
The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.
(The Wedding-
Guest heareth the
bridal music; but the
Mariner continueth his tale.)
The wedding goes on. The bride walks down the aisle as the band plays, and the guests participate, but the mariner keeps talking.
The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
"The wedding guest he beat his breast" is a signal that the guest is faux coughing to try and interrupt the old sailor in order to attend the wedding festivities. "Spake on that ancient man"-- meaning the Mariner would not interrupt his story and chatted on.
The wedding guest and the old mariner are wrapped up in their storytelling and do not participate in the festivities of the wedding that are going on around them. So the story goes on.
And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:
He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased south along.
(The ship drawn by
a storm toward the
South Pole.)
Well, obviously the ship has encountered a ferocious storm that pushes them southward. "He struck with o'ertaking wings" refers to the force of the winds and currents that take control of the ship's direction. When a ship enters a storm it must ride it out, and wait for better weather, before it can direct its own course. These "o'ertaking wings" also speaks of the dark forces of the storm, and addresses the fear of death, as this deathlike image seems to hover above them. Storms can be terrifying when at sea and they cause many a shipwrecks with loss of life. Again the natural force is identified as "He" to remind us of the force of nature as a powerful being.
With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe
And forward bends his head,
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.
This goes on to describe the incredible force of this storm in more detail, as it applies to the ship and the perspective of the sailor. Loud winds and the idea of death's wings pushing the ship further and further south as the ship tries to escape this great force of nature. The "sloping mast" refers to the ship rocking dramatically back and forth. If you are standing on deck for example, as you attempt to remain upright with the force of gravity, the mast seems to bend to and fro---as the "prow" dips. Basically you just hang on and wait.
And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
They are approaching the South Pole and it is growing cold. They pass an iceberg that is equal in height to the mast of their ship. The bright white of the ice reflecting the water and the sky-- giving it a greenish blue tint like an Atocha emerald.
[image of an iceberg can be found here]
http://afishblog.com/wp-admin/images...%20iceberg.jpg