Poet’s Corner: Coleridge–Rime 10

1 April 2026

Happy Fool’s Day! Watch out for the pranksters, lest he make a fool of you! (24 October 2014) Last week we saw it begin to rain on the Mariner in Coleridge’s masterwork, and the storm continues to rage around the Mariner’s ship; he hears the wind howling around, but no wind touches the sails, and then the ship begins to move:

The loud wind never reached the ship,
Yet now the ship moved on!
Beneath the lightning and the moon
The dead men gave a groan.

They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise.

The helmsman steered, the ship moved on;
Yet never a breeze up-blew;
The mariners all ‘gan work the ropes,
Where they were wont to do;
They raised their limbs like lifeless tools –
We were a ghastly crew.

This is the strangest moment thus far in this epic poem! The ship begins to move without the wind–which would frighten anyone nearly out of their wits during this time of sailing ships–but this is only the beginning: now the dead crew rise up and begin working the lines and guiding the ship. Oddly, although the Mariner calls this ‘strange, even in a dream,’ he has no trouble accepting this turn of events, for he grabs a line, standing “knee to knee” with a dead man he names “his brother’s son.” A macabre turn of events in this narrative, perfect for Halloween, the season of spooks. Come back next week for another dose of this garish tale! Good reading!