The Ancient Mariner

Quotations from the poem discussed or referred to

1798
And she is far liker Death than he
Her flesh makes the still air cold.
(189-90)
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ARGUMENT 1798

How a ship, having passed the line, was driven by storms to the cold country towards the South Pole, and how from thence she made her course to the tropical latitude of the great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell, and in what manner the ancyent marinere came back to his own country.
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ARGUMENT 1800

How a Ship, having first sailed to the Equator, was driven by Storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; how the Ancient Mariner cruelly and in contempt of the laws of hospitality killed a Sea-bird and how he was followed by many and strange Judgements: and in what manner he came back to his own Country.
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1817 EPIGRAPH (Burnet)

it is sometimes good to contemplate in the mind, as in a picture, the image of a greater and better world.

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to poemAnd a good south wind sprung up behind; (71).to discussion
to poem"God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus! --
Why look'st thou so?" -- With my cross bow
I shot the Albatross.
(79-82)
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to poemAs idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
(117-8)
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to poemAnd straight the Sun was flecked with bars,
(Heaven's Mother send us grace!)
As if through a dungeon grate he peered
With broad and burning face.
(177-80)
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to poemEach turned his face with a ghastly pang,
And cursed me with his eye.
(214-5)
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to poemto bliss or woe
(221)
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to poemAnd every soul, it passed me by,
Like the whizz of my cross-bow!
(222-3)
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to poemFear not, fear not, thou Wedding Guest!
This body dropt not down.
(230-1)
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to poemAlone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
(232-3)
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to poemAnd a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.
(238-9)
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to poemA wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.
(246-7)
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to poemAnd the dead were at my feet.

The cold sweat melted from their limbs,
Nor rot nor reek did they:
The look with which they looked on me
Had never passed away.
(252-6)
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to poemAn 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.
(257-62)
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to poemthe journeying Moon, and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward
(gloss: 263)
The moving Moon went up the sky
And no where did abide:
(263-4)
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to poemmy kind saint
(286)
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to poemIn the leafy month of June
(370)
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to poemAnd looked far forth yet little saw
Of what had else been seen --

Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.
(440-51)
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to poemWhat manner of man art thou?
(577)
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to poemSince then, at an uncertain hour,
That agony returns:
And till my ghastly tale is told,
This heart within me burns.
(582-5)
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to poemGod himself
Scarce seeméd there to be
(599-600)
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to poemWith a goodly company!
(604)
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to poemHe prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
(614-5)
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to poemFor the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
(616-7)
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Document created Friday, September 6, 1996