Poet’s Corner: Coleridge–Rime 6

20 March 2026

(19 September 2014) On Wednesday, we saw the entire crew of the Mariner’s ship slain by the monstrous, although strangely attractive, “Death in Life,” who wins them from Death in a dice game. Their souls ‘whizz’ past the Mariner, sounding like his crossbow. In the next part of the poem, we are reminded that the Mariner is telling this story–we are not witnessing these events firsthand–when the stopped wedding guest interrupts the narrative with what seems to him a valid fear:

‘I fear thee, ancient mariner!
I fear thy skinny hand!
And thou art long, and lank, and brown,
As is the ribbed sea-sand.

I fear thee and thy glittering eye,
And thy skinny hand, so brown.’ –
‘Fear not, fear not, thou wedding-guest!
This body dropped not down.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.

The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.

This young man fears the Mariner himself is dead, killed by Death-in-Life, and stands before him telling his story as some kind of spirit sent to torment him. The Mariner assures him that he is alive, that he did not die, and resumes his narrative by reminding his audience that he was completely alone on a dead calm sea, with none to pity him, or aid him in any way–penance for his ‘hellish deed!’ He comments on the men, so ‘beautiful’ in death! Why? Because he envied them, and the peace they had found in death, whereas he must live on, tormented by his guilt, equating himself with “a thousand thousand slimy things.” The number used by the Mariner was a number beyond anyone’s ability to understand, a more poetic way of saying the number of slimy things was infinite, and his infamy was also infinite, for which he is being justly punished, and his punishment is not just living alone when all his crew have died; it is much more than that, as we will see in the end. Come back next Monday for another installment of Coleridge’s masterpiece. Good reading!