 Hello friends, welcome to arpitaakarva.com India's finest online coaching for English Literature. And today we'll discuss another poem which is very famous and we all have studied in our schools. The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner written by Samuel Taylor Colleridge. Friends Samuel Taylor Colleridge and William Wordsworth together they published a collection of poems known as Lyrical Ballads which I've already told you. So Colleridge's Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner is the first poem in the collection. So that is a notable thing. The first poem of Lyrical Ballads is the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Apart from this poem, Colleridge contributed three more poems to Lyrical Ballad and these are Foster Mother Tale, Nightingale and Dungeon. The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner is written in the form of a ballad and it's divided into seven parts. Friends it is said that the story of the poem is inspired by the second voyage of exploration of Captain James Cook. The poem became very famous and gave the English language a famous idiom that is Albatross Around the Neck. Colleridge was influenced by English philosopher Thomas Burnett and one of his quotes in Latin became the epigraph or introduction before the poem. It says that there are forces in nature and that people should study them. The main idea of the poem is that people should honour and respect all living things. American scholar J.L. Lowes tried to trace the origins of the inspiration and wordings of this poem in his book wrote to Xanadu. So friends in this poem a disaster befalls the ship and the crew and what is the disaster now? The ship is becalmed and the crew dies of thirst. Now friends before we begin let us understand the meaning of the word mariner. A mariner is a sailor who travels in ships. Now let us begin with the poem. First we meet an ancient mariner. Colleridge describes him as having sparkling eyes. There are many guests who have gathered as a wedding is happening nearby and the ancient mariner stops one of the guests and starts telling him about his experiences from a long journey in the sea. The guest feels confused as he does not even know who this old man is and why is he telling him this story but without asking him if he is interested or not the ancient mariner starts telling his story. The wedding guest who is not at all interested in his story and just wants to attend the party finally agrees as he looks into the sparkling eyes of the ancient mariner. Now begins the story. A ship in which the ancient mariner is travelling with the other sailors has just left the harbour and is going for a journey in the south. Now the ship suddenly is hit by a violent storm making all of the sailors really worried. The storm takes the ship towards the south pole and on the way there is a lot of fog, some glaciers and snow. Then an albatross which is a sea bird comes on the ship. All the sailors consider this as a good omen and they hope that they will be saved. And truly friends, things do start to get better. The snowing stops, the weather becomes nice again, sea becomes calm and the ship now sails towards the north pacific and everyone is happy. Now every time the sailors call the albatross he comes flying to the ship. Now no one knows that what comes in the ancient mariner's mind that one day he picks up his cross point shoots the albatross dead. The other sailors are really upset and angry because the ancient mariner has killed the sweet lucky bird without any reason. Now they think that soon they will face bad luck and hold the ancient mariner responsible for it. But as time passes nothing bad happens. So the sailors they change their opinion and they think that maybe the albatross was a reason for the storm and the ancient mariner has done the right thing by killing him. At this point the wind stops blowing, it is completely silent and the ship is now completely still. So with the ship not moving at all, they are stuck in the middle of the sea. Everyone starts feeling thirsty but in spite of being in the middle of water they do not have access to fresh water which they can drink. Now no one is able to speak anything because everyone's throats have gone dry with thirst. Now friends with all these bad things happening the sailors start believing that maybe the spirit of the dead albatross is following them. Feeling angry they pick the dead albatross and hang him around the ancient mariner's neck like a garland or mala. Now a very interesting thing happens in the poem. At that moment the ancient mariner sees another ship in the distance through dense fog. Now he bites his own arm with his teeth and drinks his own blood to satisfy his thirst and shout for help. The sailors feel happy and hopeful as the other ship comes near them. But friends isn't it weird that while that ship is coming close to them their own ship is unable to move? It is so because that ship is a ghostly ship it is not real. Seeing that ship the happiness of the sailors quickly turns into fear. There are only two passengers in that ghost ship one is death and the other is life and death. So the two are playing dice with each other deciding whether the ancient mariner and the sailors will live or die. Now life and death wins the ancient mariner and death wins the rest of the sailors. That means the ancient mariner will live and the rest of the sailors will die. Now one by one all the sailors die of thirst. Friends as they die they curse the ancient mariner since they are unable to speak. So the ancient mariner is surrounded by dead bodies of his fellow sailors. He looks up to heaven and wants to pray but he cannot speak a word. And as the night comes and the moon shines brightly the ancient mariner sees some beautiful snakes around his ship. Seeing those snakes makes him wonder how every creature made by God is so beautiful and must be treated with respect and care and as soon as this thought comes to his mind the albatross which was hanging around his neck relieves him and falls into the sea. Now the mariner is also able to pray. It seems like he has been forgiven for a sense and with this he falls asleep. Friends as the ancient mariner wakes up he sees that the dead bodies of other sailors around him are slowly coming back to life. Actually angels have entered their bodies and are making them work. The angels make sure that the ancient mariner reaches the shore safely. The moment the ancient mariner reaches the angels leave the bodies of the sailors and go back. Just before reaching the shore the ancient mariner sees a pilot his son and a hermit in a boat. His own ship drowns and is saved by the boat of the pilot. Now as they reach the land the ancient mariner requests the hermit to free him from the sin of killing the albatross and in response the hermit asks the reason for such a request. So the mariner tells him a story. Now friends as the boy mends the ancient mariner tells the wedding guest that as a way to become free of his guilt of killing the albatross he has to tell the story to whoever looks into his eyes and teaches a lesson to everyone he meets and the person who looks into his eyes has to listen to his story. So in the end the ancient mariner tells him that the greatest happiness in life is loving all the creatures made by God. He then goes away to tell a story to someone else. So the wedding guest who had to who wanted to go to the wedding party does not go to the wedding after all. He feels sad but has now also become wise after listening to the ancient mariner's story. Some facts and quotes friends. Coleridge wrote the poem after being inspired by a dream he had while he was suffering from opium addiction. So some of the memorable lines I'm sure you remember this and have used it a couple of times. Water water everywhere but not any drop to drink. He prayeth best who loveeth best all things both great and small. Life and death was she who throned in a ship with bones all around. So I hope you enjoyed the poem that's it from my side for this lecture friends. We'll meet soon in the next lecture until the time we meet next. Happy learning. Keep loving literature and stay tuned to arpitakarwa.com