Poet’s Corner: Coleridge–Rime 8

26 March 2026

I just remembered that I hadn’t posted anything yet, and just discovered that I missed yesterday, too! I think I was distracted by the new D&D campaign my daughter and I have been working on, or maybe simply “dozy old git” disease. . . . Oh, well! (3 October 2014) Last time we saw the Mariner attempting to pray, failing, and then feeling guilt as viewed through the accusing looks of his dead crew. This week, we see the moon rise, casting a shadow beside the ship into which shadow the Mariner gazes, seeking answers, and sees the shadow of the ship burning red like blood:

Beyond the shadow of the ship,
I watched the water snakes:
They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they reared, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship
I watched their rich attire:
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.

O happy living things! No tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.

The selfsame moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.

The Mariner sees water snakes frolicking outside of the ship’s burning shadow, the trails of these snakes through the water ‘shining white’; I hope the symbolism here is easy to see–the color, shining white, a sign of their purity. This leads the Mariner to exclaim on their happiness and beauty, unlike him who is slimy, and two lines tell us that he ‘blessed them unaware,’ and this ‘blessing’ of these creatures frees him from his guilt, so the dead albatross falls off and sinks ‘like lead,’ a base metal; the use of ‘lead’ here indicates a purging of the Mariner’s guilt, and now, he can pray! I should note that gallons of ink have been spilled arguing over this moment, and how the Mariner could be freed from his ‘hellish deed’ if he did it unconsciously? What matters here is that he did, and that act of blessing these creatures, that many consider ‘slimy’–they are snakes, after all!–released him from his sin, a symbol for forgiveness. Come back next week and we will see what happens now that the Mariner has paid his penance! Good reading.