English: Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Part I

a. How did the ancient mariner stop the wedding guest?

Answer: The ancient mariner stopped the wedding guest by hypnotizing him with his glittering eyes.

b. Was the wedding guest happy to be stopped? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer: The wedding guest was not happy to be stopped because he had gone their to attain a wedding which he was not able to as the ancient mariner with his long beard and skinny hand had held him to listen to his experience.

c. Describe the ancient mariner.

Answer: The ancient mariner is an old man who has glittering eyes, long grey beard and skinny hands.

d. How does the mariner describe the movement of the ship as it sails away from the land?

Answer: A the ship sails away from the land, the people on the shore give them a cheerful departure. The harbor is nicely cleared and the ship leaves behind a light house, a church and a hill as it sales away from the land.

e. What kind of weather did the sailors enjoy at the beginning of their journey? How has it been expressed in the poem?

Answer: The sailor enjoyed pleasant and favorable weather at the beginning of the journey. It has been expressed in the poem by describing about movement of the sun which shines brightly in the sky everyday.

f. How did the sailors reach the land of mist and snow?

Answer: After having a smooth sailing for fer days the ship encounters a huge storm which chased the ship to south and the ship reached the land of mist and snow.

g. How does the mariner expressed the fact that the ship was completely surrounded by icebergs?

Answer: When the ship reached the land of mist and snow enormous ice-bergs starts approaching the ship. The size of the ship iceberg is bigger than that of mast. The iceberg surrounds the ship from all the side and it is not able to move forward.

h. How do we know that the albatross was not afraid of the humans? Why did the sailor's hail it in God's name?

Answer: The albatross was not afraid of the humans as it came to the ship on the call of the sailor without any fear, ate a lot of food and remained on the ship. The sailor hailed it in God's name as an auspicious sign of life and immortality who has come there just to help them out.

i. What was terrible deed done by the Mariner? Why do you think he did it?

Answer: The terrible deed done by the mariner was the shooting of albatross with his crossbow. He did it because he might have found the albatross useless after coming out safely from the land of mist and snow.

Part II

a. In which direction did the ship start moving? How can you say?

Answer: The ship started moving northwards. This can be said because the line in the poem says: “the sun now rose upon the right.”

b. Why does the mariner say that 'no sweet bird did follow'?

Answer: The mariner says that no sweet bird did follow with reference to the albatross which followed them a few days back, and now is dead.

c. How did the other mariners behave towards the Ancient Mariner at first? How many times did they change their mind about the Ancient Mariner? What does this tell us about their character?

Answer: The other mariners rebuked him at first to have killed the albatross. However, they changed their mind immediately after that to praise the ancient mariner who killed the bird which brought in fog and mist. This shows how confused the mariners were, to set up a fixed notion about the ancient sailor.

d. How did the sailing conditions change after the ship had moved out of the land of mist and snow? What or who did the mariners blame for this change?

Answer: The sailing condition changed for the worst after the ship had moved out of the land of mist and snow. Their ship was stuck in the silent sea. The breeze dropped down, making the sails drop down as well. The ship came to a standstill. The mariners blamed the ancient mariner for this change because he had killed the albatross which brought the breeze.

e. What is indicated by the line 'The bloody sun, at noon,/Right up above the mast did stand,/No bigger than the moon'?

Answer: This line indicates the excessive heat of the sun, which shone above the mast at noon. The word ‘bloody’ shows how unwelcome the sun was.

f. How does the mariner describe the fact that they were completely motionless in the middle of the sea?

Answer: The stanza “Day after day, day after day; We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship; Upon a painted ocean,” portrays a still picture of the sea and the ship.

g. What is the irony in the ninth stanza? Explain it in your own words.

Answer: The ship was surrounded by the water on all sides. The sailors were in the middle of so much water but they did not have single drop of water to drink. The water of the ocean is salty, and thus inappropriate for the sailors to quench their thirst.

h. What is the narrator trying to convey through the description of the situation in the tenth and eleventh stanza?

Answer: In these stanzas, the narrator tries to convey the standstill description of the ocean and the ship. Everything rot because of the motionless sea. Animals from deep within the ocean had come out of their places and crawled in the slimy sea.

At night, the 'death-fires' seemed to dance near them. The narrator refers to the sea water as the witch's oil. Just like a witch's oil has many shades and keeps boiling, the sea water also had 'green, blue and white' colours. However, this was due to the different coloured creatures crawling in the sea.

i. What or who did the mariners feel was responsible for their suffering?

Answer: The mariners feel the absence of the albatross is the reason for their suffering. Thus, they blame the ancient mariner for killing the albatross.

j. Describe the condition of the mariners as expressed in the thirteenth stanza.

Answer: The mariners were feeling thirsty but they didn't have water to quench their thirst. Their tongue had become completely dry at the root. They couldn't speak because they felt if their throats were chocked with soot.

k. Why did the mariners hang the albatross around the neck of the Ancient Mariner?

Answer: The mariners hung the albatross around the neck of the Ancient Mariner as a cursed reminder, so that the thought could plague him for the rest of his life.