Poet’s Corner: Coleridge–Rime 13

10 April 2026

(21 November 2014) Last time, we learned that while Coleridge’s Mariner “slept”–a charmed sleep–the ship traveled at supernatural speed, crossing miles and miles of ocean in hours instead of months; now, the Mariner wakes up and sees the dead sailors all gathered together:

All stood together on the deck,
For a charnel-dungeon fitter:
All fixed on me their stony eyes,
That in the moon did glitter.

The pang, the curse, with which they died,
Had never passed away:
I could not draw my eyes from theirs,
Nor turn them up to pray.

And now this spell was snapped: once more
I viewed the ocean green,
And looked far forth, yet little saw
Of what had else been seen–

We see the dead sailors staring at the Mariner with “their stony eyes” that glitter in the moonlight. It is interesting that the Mariner describes their eyes as glittering, for that is what the Wedding Guest–the guy who is listening to the tale–sees, and it is what keeps him in place, hearing the story to the end. Here the Mariner still feels the curse in the eyes of the dead sailors, but then, finally, the “spell was snapped,” and the Mariner can now see the world around him, its beauty and wonder, and so his penance seems to be over. However, as we shall see in forthcoming posts, his penance is not done, for there is more the Mariner must do to pay the price for his “Hellish deed.” Come back again on Monday to see the Mariner’s return to his own port, and his joy at finding himself home. Good reading!