Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Summary Three young men are walking together to a wedding, when one of them is detained by a grizzled old sailor. The young Wedding-Guest angrily demands that the Mariner let go of him, and the Mariner obeys. But the young man is transfixed by the ancient Mariner's "glittering eye" and can do nothing but sit on a stone and listen to his strange tale. The Mariner says that he sailed on a ship out of …

…equally complicated tale of the sea, Moby-Dick. Here in Coleridge's poem, this dialogue plunges the reader suddenly into the role of the Mariner, hearing the voices around him rather than simply hearing them described. Disorienting techniques such as this one are used throughout the "Rime" to ensure that the poem never becomes too abstract in its interplay between side notes and verse; thus, however theoretical the level of the poem's operation, its story remains compelling.