The A letter from Margaret
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1797–98) is a ballad by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
version that pairs the ballad with the French illustrator Gustave Doré‘s amazing illustrations (from 1870), which help you follow the story a lot better.
Questions to help guide you through understanding the reading:
– Why does the Mariner shoot the albatross? Does he have any reason or is it just pointless sin?
– What very famous religious story does the Rime allegorize?
– What is the environmental or animal rights lesson in this poem?
– Why do all the other sailors die?
– What connection do you see between these lines and Walton’s letters?:
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea
And never a saint took pity on
Soul in agony.
(233–6)
– How does the mariner break the curse of the albatross?
– What happens to the dead men after the curse is broken?
– What is the role of the hermit in the poem?
– What does the wedding guest do at the end? Why is he sad the next day?