Doré’s extreme tones of dark and light accentuate the grave and dramatic subject matter found in the poem. 

Doré’s edition of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was an immense volume, with a gold-letter title, red cloth boards, and a title page with a vignette. The frontispiece was composed of fourteen pages, and was followed by thirty-eight folio plates. The poem had two vignettes at the beginning of the text and one at the end.

Doré’s unique illustrations are produced through the technique of photography on zinc. The photography of the original plate was transferred to a plate of zinc covered with sensitized emulsion, and was then treated with an acid resist.