The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Story

While on his way to a wedding, a man comes across an old sailor with a story to tell. The sailor embarks on a spooky tale of a ship sailing across Antarctica, led through the ice by an albatross, a big white seabird. All is well until one of the sailors kills the albatross, shooting it with his cross-bow. The crew hang the bird around the sailor’s neck as punishment. That’s when things take a turn for the worse and ghost ships, zombies and haunted skeletons start to appear.

Why we chose it

The poem is now considered a classic of English literature. It is quoted or referenced in lots of other stories, books, games, songs, and comics.

Where it came from

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a poet known for his strange, magical writing style. He and his friend William Wordsworth put together Lyrical Ballads in 1798 as a collection of poems which celebrates the strangeness and wonder of nature. Their writing movement would become known as ‘Romanticism’. Coleridge, William and Dorothy Wordsworth would go on walks around the countryside especially in Somerset and the Lake District to gather inspiration and talk about philosophy and poetry. Their work was usually about nature and its mystery and power, which is an important theme in the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Where it went next

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner had mixed reviews when it was first published. Some felt it was too strange or some of the language too old-fashioned. However, its magical and other-worldly style went on to inspire the next generation of Romantic writers, for instance Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein.

It is commemorated with a statue at Watchet Harbour, Somerset of the Ancient Mariner with the albatross hung around his neck.

Associated stories

Coleridge wrote many other poems, some of them appearing in Lyrical Ballads, as well as his other famous works, Christabel and Kubla Khan. Wordsworth and Coleridge’s work inspired other Romantic poets like William Blake, Lord Byron, and John Keats.