Reviews - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

230 reviews for:

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

3.83 AVERAGE

anettseda's review

4.0

adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

binta's review

5.0

not to be a basic bitch but if i could i would paper mache the words and illustrations of this book to my brain

mr_lamps's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

joelogsliterature's review

5.0

emotional reflective medium-paced

"God save thee, ancyent Marinere !
"From the fiends that plague thee thus—
"Why look’st thou so ?"—with my cross bow
I shot the Albatross.

I rarely put stock in social media algorithms' ability to effect true good, but YouTube found it fit to surprise me with Ian McKellan reading the original 1798 text this morning.

The origin of the metaphorical albatross and probably a major source of spread of the story of the Flying Dutchman, the Rime will be familiar in many ways to the modern reader in spite of its (charmingly) antiquation in diction and spelling alike. Deeply romantic, its core personifications and dedication to symbol bring to mind the oft-revisited medieval Christian ethos, but it too has a personal slant, despite the lack of an agentic or named protagonist, which should not be overlooked. The ending borders on too direct, too didactic in reinforcing these two aspects, but Coleridge must be forgiven when one considers that, even with the conclusion, critics complained it was obscure.

He prayeth best who loveth best,
All things both great and small :
For the dear God, who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

The Marinere, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone ; and now the wedding-guest
Turn’d from the bridegroom’s door.

He went, like one that hath been stunn’d
And is of sense forlorn :
A sadder and a wiser man
He rose the morrow morn.

sarainbookland's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Taylor Swift made me read weird stuff.

The prose was nice, but the old way of writing was hard to understand as a non-native English speaker and I had to read explanation about the poem to understand what the hell happened.

Listen to the Albatross:

https://open.spotify.com/track/6D1tsnrH66iZDw5dpv2g8f?si=hS3pYAURQSywOK0951Ai-w

https://youtu.be/4wOsiM2T_xc?si=2t_q-E1AcP9Ay9n4