Hatrack River Writers Workshop: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

This is topic The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Phanto (Member # 1619) on :

Who here has read this poem? I was surprised that no one really caught the reference to that poem; it is a MASTEPIECE of discrption that we AS WRITERS can look at and learn SO much from!

Examples:

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion ;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
We could nor laugh nor wail ;
Through utter drought all dumb we stood !
I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
And cried, A sail ! a sail !

Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold :
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.

(This is one of my favorites)

d) An orphan's curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high ;
But oh ! more horrible than that
Is the curse in a dead man's eye !
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.

Finally:

e) It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise.

Get the whole thing at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html.

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Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

Phanto, I first read that 40 years ago. Yes, it is magnificent. So are many others.

Posted by bladeofwords (Member # 2132) on :

I played a character named the "Ancient Mariner" in a play once. very interesting. I shall have to read more.

Jon

Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :

The link didn't work.

Try this one to read it online:
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/journeys/01/sep01/mariner_part1.html

Or this one to download it:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/151

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Grrr! The explanatory text is annoying as anything, but those woodcuts or whatever were cool.