The Rimes of the Ancyent Marinere
An Open Access Website to Discover the Variations of Coleridge's Famous Poem
The Rimes of the Ancyent Marinere

1817 ∙ Sibylline Leaves ∙ Added Gloss

  1. Lines 1-4 | An ancient Mariner meeteth three Gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one.
  2. Lines 13-16 | The Wedding-Guest is spell-bound by the eye of the old, seafaring man, and constrained to hear his tale.
  3. Lines 25-28 | The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the line.
  4. Lines 33-36 | The wedding guest heareth the bridal music; but the Mariner continueth his tale.
  5. Lines 41-44 | The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole.
  6. Lines 55-58 | The land of ice and of fearful sounds where no living thing was to be seen.
  7. Lines 63-66 | Till a great sea-bird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality.
  8. Lines 71-74 | And lo! the Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followers the ship as it returned northward through fog and floating ice.
  9. Lines 79-82 | The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen.
  10. Lines 91-95 | His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good luck.
  11. Lines 97-100 | But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves accomplices in the crime.
  12. Lines 103-106 | The fair breeze continues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails northward, even till it reaches the Line.
  13. Lines 106-107 | The ship hath been suddenly becalmed.
  14. Lines 119-121 | And the Albatross begins to be avenged.
  15. Lines 131-134 | A spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither departed souls nor angels; concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or element without one or more.
  16. Lines 139-142 | The shipmates, in their sore distress, would fain throw the whole guilt on the ancient Mariner: in sign whereof they hang the dead sea-bird round his neck.
  17. Lines 147-148 | The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off.
  18. Lines 157-161 | At its nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship; and at a dear ransom he freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst.
  19. Lines 165-166 | A flash of joy;
  20. Lines 167-170 | And horror follows. For can it be a ship that comes onward without wind or tide?
  21. Lines 177-180 | It seemeth him but the skeleton of a ship.
  22. Lines 185-189 | And its ribs are seen as bars on the face of the setting Sun. The spectre-woman and her death-mate, and no other on board the skeleton-ship.
  23. Lines 191-192 | Like a vessel, like crew!
  24. Lines 195-198 | Death and Life-in-death have diced for the ship’s crew, and she (the latter) winneth the ancient Mariner.
  25. Lines 199-200 | No twilight within the courts of the sun.
  26. Lines 203-205 | At the rising of the Moon.
  27. Line 212 | One after another,
  28. Lines 216-218 | His shipmates drop down dead.
  29. Lines 220-222 | But Life-in-Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner.
  30. Lines 225-227 | The wedding guest feareth that a spirit is talking to him.
  31. Lines 230-234 | But the ancient Mariner assureth him of his bodily life and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance.
  32. Lines 236-238 | He despiseth the creatures of the calm.
  33. Lines 240-243 | And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.
  34. Lines 253-255 | But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men.
  35. Lines 263-266 | In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying Moon, and the starts that still sojourn, yet still move onward; and every where the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest, and their native country and their own natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords that are certainly expected and yet there is a silent joy at their arrival.
  36. Lines 272-274 | By the light of the Moon he beholder God’s creatures of the great calm.
  37. Lines 282-283 | Their beauty and their happiness.
  38. Lines 286-287 | He blesseth them in his heart.
  39. Lines 288-290 | The spell begins to break.
  40. Lines 298-300 | By the grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.
  41. Lines 309-312 | He heareth sounds and seeth strange sights and commotions n the sky and the element.
  42. Lines 327-330 | The bodies of the ship’s crew are inspired, and the ship moves on;
  43. Lines 345-351 | But not by the souls of the men, nor by the demons of earth or middle air, but by a blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent down by the invocation of the guardian saint.
  44. Lines 377-382 | The lonesome spirit form the south-pole carries on the ship as far as the line, in obedience to the angelic troop, but still requireth vengeance.
  45. Lines 393-402 | The Polar Spirit’s fellow demons, the invisible inhabitants of the element, take part in his wrong and two of them relate one to the other, that penance long and heavy for the ancient Mariner hat been accorded to the Polar Spirit, who returneth southward.
  46. Lines 422-425 | The Mariner hath been cast into a trance; for the angelic power causeth the vessel to drive northward faster than human life could endure.
  47. Lines 430 | The supernatural motion is retarded; the Mariner awake, and his penance begins anew
  48. Lines 442-444 | The curse is finally expiated.
  49. Lines 464-465 |And the ancient Mariner beholdeth his country.
  50. Lines 482-483 | The angelic spirits leave the dead bodies.
  51. Lines 484-485 | And appear in their own forms of light.
  52. Lines 514-515 | The Hermit of the wood,
  53. Lines 527-528 | Approacheth the ship with wonder.
  54. Lines 546-547 | The ship suddenly sinketh.
  55. Lines 550-553 | The ancient Mariner is saved in the Pilot’s boat.
  56. Lines 574-577 | The ancient Mariner earnestly entreaty the Hermit to shrieve him; and the penance of life falls on him.
  57. Lines 582-585 | And ever and anon throughout his future life an agony constraints him to travel from land to land.
  58. Lines 610-613 | And to teach, by his own example, love and reverence to all things that God made and loveth!