Part I
It is an ancient Mariner,And he stoppeth one of three."By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
"The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,And I am next of kin;The guests are met, the feast is set:May'st hear the merry din."
He holds him with his skinny hand,"There was a ship," quoth he."Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
He holds him with his glittering eyeThe Wedding-Guest stood still,And listens like a three years' child:The Mariner hath his will.
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:He cannot choose but hear;And thus spake on that ancient man,The bright-eyed Mariner.
"The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,Merrily did we dropBelow the kirk, below the hill,Below the lighthouse top.
The sun came up upon the left,Out of the sea came he!And he shone bright, and on the rightWent down into the sea.
Higher and higher every day,Till over the mast at noon--"The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,For he heard the loud bassoon.
The bride hath paced into the hall,Red as a rose is she;Nodding their heads before her goesThe merry minstrelsy.
The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,Yet he cannot choose but hear;And thus spake on that ancient man,The bright-eyed Mariner.
"And now the Storm-blast came, and heWas tyrannous and strong:He struck with his o'ertaking wingsAnd chased us south along.
With sloping masts and dipping prow,As who pursued with yell and blowStill treads the shadow of his foe,And forward bends his head,The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,And southward aye we fled.
And now there came both mist and snow,And it grew wondrous cold:And ice, mast-high, came floating by,As green as emerald.
And through the drifts the snowy cliftsDid send a dismal sheen:Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--The ice was all between.
The ice was here, the ice was there,The ice was all around:It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,Like noises in a swound!
At length did cross an Albatross,Thorough the fog it came;As if it had been a Christian soul,We hailed it in God's name.
It ate the food it ne'er had eat,And round and round it flew.The ice did split with a thunder-fit;The helmsman steered us through!
And a good south wind sprung up behind;The Albatross did follow,And every day, for food or play,Came to the mariners' hollo!
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,It perched for vespers nine;Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,Glimmered the white moon-shine."
"God save thee, ancient Mariner!From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--Why look'st thou so?"--With my cross-bowI shot the Albatross.
Words in this poem 17
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- skinny a.
- Consisting, or chiefly consisting, of skin; wanting flesh.
- quoth v. t.
- Said; spoke; uttered; -- used only in the first and third persons in the past tenses, and always followed by its nominative, the word or words said being the object; as, quoth I. quoth he. [AS.cweedhan, imp cwæedh, pl. cwædon; akin to OS. queedhan, OHG. quethan, quedan, Icel. kveedha, Goth. qiþan. sq. root22. Cf. Bequeath.]
- unhand v. t.
- To loose from the hand; to let go. [1 st pref. un- + hand.]
- eftsoons adv.
- Again; anew; a second time; at once; speedily. [OE. eftsone, eftsones; AS. eft + s soon. See Eft, and Soon.]
- harbour n.
- A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
- kirk n.
- A church or the church, in the various senses of the word; esp., the Church of Scotland as distinguished from other reformed churches, or from the Roman Catholic Church. Jamieson. [Scot.; cf. Icel. kirkja, of Greek origin. See Church.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- minstrelsy n.
- The arts and occupation of minstrels; the singing and playing of a minstrel.
- tyrannous a.
- Tyrannical; arbitrary; unjustly severe; despotic. Sir P.
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
- whiles conj.
- During the time that; while. Chaucer. Fuller.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Part I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Coleridge, Project Gutenberg ebook #8208; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Part I, in Poems of Coleridge (1796–1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8208, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coleridge-poems/part-i.html, id L00296.
Form and metre
Part I is 82 lines in 20 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -AAA mariner · threeA · eyeA · meA
- 2 -A-A wide · kinA · set · dinA
- 3 -A-A hand · heA · loon · heA
- 4 -A-A eye · stillA · child · willA
- 6 -A-A cleared · dropA · hill · topA
- 7 -A-A left · heA · right · seaA
- 8 -A-A day · noonA · breast · bassoonA
- 11 -A-A he · strongA · wings · alongA
- 12 -AAB-B prow · blowA · foeA · headB · blast · fledB
- 13 -A-A snow · coldA · by · emeraldA
- 14 -A-A clifts · sheenA · ken · betweenA
- 15 -A-A there · aroundA · howled · swoundA
- 16 -A-A albatross · cameA · soul · nameA
- 17 -A-A eat · flewA · fit · throughA
- 19 -A-A shroud · nineA · white · shineA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| It is an ancient Mariner, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And he stoppeth one of three. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| "By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Now wherefore stopp'st thou me? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| "The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| And I am next of kin; | 6 | ······ |
| The guests are met, the feast is set: | 8 | ········ |
| May'st hear the merry din." | 6 | ···/˘· |
| He holds him with his skinny hand, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| "There was a ship," quoth he. | 6 | ······ |
| "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!" | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Eftsoons his hand dropt he. | 6 | ······ |
| He holds him with his glittering eye | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The Wedding-Guest stood still, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And listens like a three years' child: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The Mariner hath his will. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| He cannot choose but hear; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And thus spake on that ancient man, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The bright-eyed Mariner. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| "The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Merrily did we drop | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| Below the kirk, below the hill, | 8 | ········ |
| Below the lighthouse top. | 6 | ···/·· |
| The sun came up upon the left, | 8 | ········ |
| Out of the sea came he! | 6 | ······ |
| And he shone bright, and on the right | 8 | ········ |
| Went down into the sea. | 6 | ······ |
| Higher and higher every day, | 8 | /·/˘/˘˘· |
| Till over the mast at noon--" | 7 | ······· |
| The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For he heard the loud bassoon. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| The bride hath paced into the hall, | 8 | ········ |
| Red as a rose is she; | 6 | ······ |
| Nodding their heads before her goes | 8 | /˘······ |
| The merry minstrelsy. | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Yet he cannot choose but hear; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And thus spake on that ancient man, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The bright-eyed Mariner. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| "And now the Storm-blast came, and he | 8 | ········ |
| Was tyrannous and strong: | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| He struck with his o'ertaking wings | 8 | ········ |
| And chased us south along. | 7 | ··˘··˘/ |
| With sloping masts and dipping prow, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| As who pursued with yell and blow | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Still treads the shadow of his foe, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And forward bends his head, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, | 8 | ········ |
| And southward aye we fled. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And now there came both mist and snow, | 8 | ········ |
| And it grew wondrous cold: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And ice, mast-high, came floating by, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As green as emerald. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And through the drifts the snowy clifts | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Did send a dismal sheen: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-- | 8 | ········ |
| The ice was all between. | 6 | ······ |
| The ice was here, the ice was there, | 8 | ········ |
| The ice was all around: | 6 | ······ |
| It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, | 8 | ········ |
| Like noises in a swound! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| At length did cross an Albatross, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thorough the fog it came; | 6 | /˘···· |
| As if it had been a Christian soul, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| We hailed it in God's name. | 7 | ··˘···· |
| It ate the food it ne'er had eat, | 8 | ········ |
| And round and round it flew. | 6 | ······ |
| The ice did split with a thunder-fit; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| The helmsman steered us through! | 7 | ·/··˘·· |
| And a good south wind sprung up behind; | 9 | ········· |
| The Albatross did follow, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And every day, for food or play, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Came to the mariners' hollo! | 8 | ···/˘˘/· |
| In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, | 8 | ········ |
| It perched for vespers nine; | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, | 8 | ········ |
| Glimmered the white moon-shine." | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| "God save thee, ancient Mariner! | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| From the fiends, that plague thee thus!-- | 7 | ······· |
| Why look'st thou so?"--With my cross-bow | 8 | ········ |
| I shot the Albatross. | 6 | ···/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.