The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, part 3

According to Coleridge's friend William Wordsworth, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner was inspired while Coleridge, Wordsworth and Wordsworth's sister Dorothy were on a walking tour through the Quantock Hills in Somerset in the spring of 1798.The discussion had turned to a book that Wordsworth was reading, A Voyage Round The World by Way of the Great South Sea (1726), by Captain George Shelvocke. In the book, a melancholy sailor, Simon Hatley, shoots a black albatross:

We all observed, that we had not the sight of one fish of any kind, since we were come to the Southward of the streights of le Mair, nor one sea-bird, except a disconsolate black Albatross, who accompanied us for several days ..., till Hattley, (my second Captain) observing, in one of his melancholy fits, that this bird was always hovering near us, imagin'd, from his colour, that it might be some ill omen. ... He, after some fruitless attempts, at length, shot the Albatross, not doubting we should have a fair wind after it.

Coleridge became interested in retelling Shelvocke's story, and Wordsworth suggested "Suppose you represent him as having killed one of these birds on entering the south sea, and the tutelary spirits of these regions take upon them to avenge the crime." By the time the trio finished their walk, the poem had taken shape.

The poem also draws on legends of the Flying Dutchman and the Wandering Jew, who was forced to wander the Earth until Judgement Day for taunting Jesus on the day of the Crucifixion.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• zombies
• horror
• zombie

[maxxxineify]

Beautifully read :)

[bankercop]

Thank you for sharing this, one of my all-time favorite classics!