Report: Rime of the Ancient Mariner

In my literacy group we have been reading 'Alone on a Wide Wide Sea' by Michael Morpurgo. The poem 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' came up and we had to do a report on it. The poem is really good and there is a link to it at the end of my report if you would like to read it! I warn you, it's a really long poem.

 Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Rime of the Ancient Mariner is one of the most famous poems in the English language and was created by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797, published in 1798, and was updated throughout his life. Samuel Coleridge was born October 21, 1772, Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, England. He was an English lyrical poet, critic, and philosopher. 

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is about a seaman who shot an albatross, which leads to misfortune for him and his fellow sailors. The seaman, who is the ancient mariner, then goes around the world retelling the tale of his cursed journey. 

The ancient mariner isn’t a real person but Coleridge may have been inspired by a conversation he had with another famous poet, William Wordsworth, who had recently read George Shelvocke's ‘A Voyage Round the World’. Shelvocke writes of an incident when his second in command shot an albatross, which had been following the ship for several days. The ship, called the Speedwell, was later lost at Juan Fernandez Island.

Other people say that the poem was inspired by a dream that Coleridge's friend, George Cruikshank, had after he finished reading Thomas James’ ‘Strange and Dangerous Voyage’. This is about a man who had been shipwrecked and saved by angels who had piloted the ship.

There’s other, other, people who think that the old man who speaks at the start of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner could have been Fletcher Christian, who led the mutiny aboard the HMS Bounty in 1789. Coleridge had been aware of the rumours that Christian faked his own death and returned to England, meaning the old man of the poem could have been inspired by Christian. 

Are any of these true? We’ll never know, because Samuel Coleridge died in Croydon (United States) on the 25th of July, 1834. Samuel Coleridge was buried on Bandon Hill.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner