english class 10 projct

2. Many critics see
the ‘Rime of the
Ancient Mariner’
as an allegory of
some kind of fall,
like……
Of Coleridge -Of Lucifer - Of Adam -
…forbidden fruit?…cast into hell? …opium?
“…the very deep did
rot…”
“…slimy things …
Slimy sea”
“I shot the albatross”
“…and I had done a
hellish thing…”
“witch’s oils, / … burnt
green, and blue and
white”
Phantasmagoria!
STRUCTURE:
Sin, Punishment, Redemption…
Milton Parallels?
(Paradise Lost)
Shelley’s Interpretation?
(Frankenstein)

3. “poetry gives most pleasure when only generally
and not perfectly understood"
- Coleridge
Many critics maintain, as Christopher Lamb does,
that the ‘Ancient Mariner’ is a work of complete
and pure imagination. As…
No single interpretation seems to
fit the entire poem…
In essence, it is a very imaginative
and unusual piece…
Purely inspirational? Dark gothic?
“cursed me with his eye”
“Life-in-death”
“spectre bark”
Gustav Doré’s Dark Etches…

4. Coleridge felt a deep sense of sin,
for his opium addiction and
otherwise.
The poem could be his way of fathoming his
feelings.
The “strange power” of the Ancient Mariner, as his difficult feelings.
“mingled strangely with my fears”
“I know that man … must hear me” / “To him my tale I teach”
Hence, his sensitivity and saying that the poem
should not be analysed…?
(“poetry gives most pleasure when only
generally and not perfectly understood“)
Just as the
Ancient Mariner
has to re-tell his
tale, Coleridge
has to keep on
returning to this
poem and
revising it…

5. “Instead of the cross, the Albatross/
About my neck was hung”
“I had killed the bird / That made
the breeze to blow”
“Hailed it in God’s name”
“Christian soul”
“Crimson red like Gods own head”
- “Hid in mist”
- “dungeon-grate”
“blessed them
unawares”Crew
distanced
from God

6. The End