The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Part 4 Summary

Stanza 1: The Wedding Guest fears the Mariner's appearance

I fear thee, ancient Mariner! / I fear thy skinny hand! / And thou art long, and lank, and brown, / As is the ribbed sea-sand.

The Wedding Guest expresses his fear of the Ancient Mariner. He is afraid of the Mariner's thin, skeletal hand. He observes that the Mariner's body is long, thin, and brown, comparing his appearance to the ribbed patterns made by the sea in sand.

The Wedding Guest's fear shows that the Mariner has a strange and frightening appearance. The comparison to sea sand emphasizes that the Mariner looks worn and weathered by his experiences at sea. His appearance reflects the terrible sufferings he has endured.

Stanza 2: The Mariner reassures the guest; his body did not die like the others

I fear thee and thy glittering eye, / And thy skinny hand, so brown.'— / Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest! / This body dropt not down.

The Wedding Guest continues to express fear of the Mariner's glittering eye and skeletal hand. The Mariner responds to the guest's fear with reassurance. He tells the Wedding Guest not to be afraid.

The Mariner's response reveals an important truth: "This body dropt not down." He is saying that while all the other crew members died, his body did not fall to the deck. Unlike the rest of his crew, he remained alive throughout the curse. This sets him apart as unique and chosen for a special purpose.

Stanza 3: The Mariner's terrible isolation and abandonment

Alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide wide sea! / And never a saint took pity on / My soul in agony.

The Mariner now describes his terrible isolation. He repeats "alone" four times, emphasizing the depth of his loneliness and desperation. He sailed on a vast, wide sea with absolutely no other living companions.

The Mariner felt completely abandoned by God and the saints. No divine being showed pity or compassion for his suffering soul. He felt utterly forsaken and isolated from both the living world and the spiritual world. This moment represents the lowest point of his despair and suffering.

Stanza 4: The irony of beautiful men dying while slimy creatures live

The many men, so beautiful! / And they all dead did lie: / And a thousand thousand slimy things / Lived on; and so did I.

The Mariner reflects on the terrible irony of death and life. His crew members, who were beautiful and human, all died and lay dead on the deck. Yet the slimy creatures of the sea—creatures with no beauty or nobility—continued to live.

The Mariner himself, despite his guilt, also remained alive when better men had died. This survival without redemption causes the Mariner profound psychological torture. He questions why he was allowed to live when his crew perished, and why slimy creatures thrive when humans die.

Stanza 5: The Mariner cannot escape the sight of death everywhere

I looked upon the rotting sea, / And drew my eyes away; / I looked upon the rotting deck, / And there the dead men lay.

The Mariner looks at his surroundings with horror. The sea itself appears to be rotting, suggesting that everything around him is corrupted and dying. The sight is so terrible that he must look away.

He then looks at the deck of his ship, only to see the dead bodies of his crew members lying all around him. Everywhere he looks—sea, deck, sky—there is only death and corruption. He cannot escape from the terrible reality of his situation.

Stanza 6: His attempt to pray is blocked by a wicked whisper

I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; / But or ever a prayer had gusht, / A wicked whisper came, and made / My heart as dry as dust.

The Mariner desperately looks upward to heaven and attempts to pray to God. He seeks spiritual relief through prayer. However, before he can even complete his prayer, something terrible happens.

A wicked whisper enters his mind, stopping his prayer. His heart becomes "as dry as dust," meaning his ability to feel compassion, faith, and hope is completely destroyed. He is unable to pray because his spiritual and emotional nature has been contaminated by guilt and despair. The curse prevents him from finding relief through prayer.

Stanza 7: His eyes closed but crushed by the weight of death

I closed my lids, and kept them close, / And the balls like pulses beat; / For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky / Lay dead like a load on my weary eye, / And the dead were at my feet.

The Mariner closes his eyes tightly to escape the horrible sights around him. His eyeballs throb like pulses, indicating the intense pain and pressure from what he has witnessed.

Even with his eyes closed, he cannot escape. The sky and the sea—the natural world that should bring comfort—feel like a dead weight crushing his tired eyes. The dead bodies of the crew members lie at his feet, a constant reminder of his responsibility for their deaths.

The repetition of "sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky" creates a sense of inescapable doom. No matter which way he turns—up to heaven or down to the sea—he encounters only death and suffering.

Stanza 8: The dead bodies don't rot but their curse remains in their eyes

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.

Although the dead bodies are subject to the natural processes of decay, something supernatural prevents their bodies from rotting or releasing bad smell. The corpses remain preserved in an unnatural way.

The most terrible aspect is that the dead men's eyes continue to look at the Mariner with accusation and blame. Their eyes, filled with the curse of their deaths, never close and never stop looking at him. This eternal gaze is the Mariner's greatest torment.

Stanza 9: The curse in a dead man's eye is worse than any other curse; seven days and nights of torment

An 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.

The Mariner reflects on how terrible curses can be. He says that even the curse of an orphan—the most wretched and unfortunate person—could drag a spirit from heaven down to hell.

However, he insists that something even worse exists: the curse in the eyes of a dead person. The gaze of those he caused to die is more terrible than any ordinary curse. The Mariner must endure this curse for seven days and seven nights.

Despite his suffering and his desire to escape through death, the Mariner cannot die. He is trapped in a living hell, forced to remain conscious and aware of his guilt. The number "seven days, seven nights" suggests a complete week of torture without relief. He is kept alive by supernatural forces to experience maximum suffering.

Stanza 10: The moon rises softly in the night sky

The moving Moon went up the sky, / And no where did abide: / Softly she was going up, / And a star or two beside—

The Mariner observes the moon rising in the night sky. The moon moves across the heavens and does not remain in any one place. She rises softly with one or two stars accompanying her.

The moon's gentle movement and soft light contrast sharply with the Mariner's internal suffering. Nature continues its peaceful cycles while the Mariner remains trapped in agony. The moon and stars represent the normal, beautiful world from which he is separated by his curse.

Stanza 11: The moon's light mocks the ocean; within the ship's shadow, cursed red water burns

Her beams bemocked the sultry main, / Like April hoar-frost spread; / But where the ship's huge shadow lay, / The charmèd water burnt alway / A still and awful red.

The moon's beams mockingly shine on the hot ocean (sultry main), spreading light like April frost. The moon appears to make fun of the Mariner's suffering by bringing light to the darkness.

However, something supernatural happens where the ship's shadow falls on the water. The water glows with a burning red color. This red light is "charmèd"—controlled by supernatural magic—and creates an "awful red" that suggests blood and danger.

The contrast between the beautiful moon light outside the shadow and the burning red light within the shadow shows the division between the normal world and the cursed world where the Mariner exists. The beauty of nature is denied to him.

Stanza 12: The water snakes beyond the shadow move with shining white light

Beyond the shadow of the ship, / I watched the water-snakes: / They moved in tracks of shining white, / And when they reared, the elfish light / Fell off in hoary flakes.

Looking beyond the shadow of the ship, the Mariner observes water snakes swimming in the ocean. The snakes move through the water leaving trails of shining white light. This light is magical and beautiful.

When the snakes rear up (lift themselves upright), the elfish (magical and otherworldly) light falls from them like hoar frost flakes. The beauty and strangeness of these creatures begins to affect the Mariner's hardened heart.

Stanza 13: The snakes' beautiful colors within the cursed red water

Within the shadow of the ship / I watched their rich attire: / Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, / They coiled and swam; and every track / Was a flash of golden fire.

Within the ship's shadow where the red cursed water glows, the Mariner observes the snakes' rich and beautiful colors. Their scales shimmer with blue, glossy green, and deep velvet black.

As the snakes move and swim through the cursed red water, each movement leaves a trail of golden fire behind them. The contrast between the beautiful creatures and the terrible cursed water creates a powerful image of beauty existing within darkness and suffering.

Stanza 14: The Mariner's heart opens with love for the water snakes; he blesses them unaware

O happy living things! no tongue / Their beauty might declare: / A spring of love gushed from my heart, / And I blessed them unaware: / Sure my kind saint took pity on me, / And I blessed them unaware.

The Mariner cries out in wonder at the happy, living water snakes. Their beauty is so great that no human language can adequately describe it. Words cannot capture the magnificence of these creatures.

As the Mariner observes them, something miraculous happens. Love suddenly springs up from deep within his heart—the same heart that had been as dry as dust and hardened by guilt and despair. This love is spontaneous and sudden, not controlled by his will.

The Mariner blesses the snakes without conscious intention, without thinking about it. He says that a kind saint must have taken pity on him and caused him to bless the creatures. The blessing of these innocent, beautiful living things represents a turning point. By loving something other than himself and his guilt, the Mariner begins to heal spiritually.

Stanza 15: The curse is broken; the albatross falls from his neck into the sea

The self-same moment I could pray; / And from my neck so free / The Albatross fell off, and sank / Like lead into the sea.

In the very same moment that the Mariner blesses the water snakes and opens his heart to love, he suddenly regains the ability to pray. His spiritual connection with the divine is restored.

The physical symbol of his curse—the dead albatross hung around his neck—suddenly falls off. It sinks into the sea like lead, disappearing completely. The removal of the albatross represents the breaking of the curse. The Mariner has been redeemed through love and compassion for innocent life.