
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1834) - brudgers
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834
======
Jaruzel
Something I've always wondered...

In my accent (I'm British, with a classic 'semi-posh'[1] accent) and I say
'Marin-err' however when reading the poem, it seems to me that it supposed to
be 'Marin-ear' so as to rhyme with 'hear'.

Back in 19th century, did people pronounce it differently, or is Coleridge
bending the pronunciation to force the rhyme?

\---

[1] Home Counties, for you other brits.

~~~
yesenadam
The notes in an 1885 edition say

"As printed the [hear/Mariner] rhyme is defective. In the original edition the
spelling is _Marinere_ wherever the word occurs."[0]

An archaism I suppose, like _eftsoons_ etc. And about

    
    
      How loudly his sweet voice he rears!
      He loves to talk with marineres
      That come from a far countree.
    

it says "In the early editions this is always spelt, as here, with an added
_e_ ; when the poem was revised the _e_ was dropped, except in this place,
where it is retained on account of the rhyme."

And the -ear sound is better for rhyming! e.g.

    
    
      Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)
      How fast she nears and nears!
      Are those her sails that glance in the Sun,
      Like restless gossameres? 
    

Also, re the _there /are/prayer_ rhyme

    
    
      What loud uproar bursts from that door!
      The wedding-guests are there:
      But in the garden-bower the bride
      And bride-maids singing are:
      And hark the little vesper bell,
      Which biddeth me to prayer!  
    

"A great many English-speaking people incorrectly pronounce 'are' like 'air,'
and [this rhyme], viewed in connection with the one before us,

    
    
      [Sometimes all little birds that are,
      How they seemed to fill the sea and air] 
    

would seem to indicate that this was Coleridge's pronunciation."

Finally,

"The pronunciation of [Coleridge] is indicated by Coleridge himself in the
following couplet :

    
    
      Could you stand upon Skiddaw, you would not from its whole ridge
      See a man who so loves you as your fond S. T. Coleridge." 
    
    

[0]
[https://archive.org/stream/coleridgesancient00cole/coleridge...](https://archive.org/stream/coleridgesancient00cole/coleridgesancient00cole_djvu.txt)

~~~
StrictDabbler
These are very useful notes. It doesn't look like they address this one:

FIRST VOICE

But why drives on that ship so fast, Without or wave or wind?'

SECOND VOICE

'The air is cut away before, And closes from behind.

When I was memorizing this poem with my friends in high-school this was a high
point. All as one, we'd say "And closes from BEE-HIHND," rhyming it with
"wind" and then breaking up in gales of laughter.

~~~
yesenadam
Well, the lines

    
    
      With sloping masts and dipping prow, 
      As who pursued with yell and blow 
    

have the notes

" _prow_ , the Classical equivalent of the Teutonic _bow_ , rimes with _blow_
only to the eye. Such are called printers' rhymes."

Did you manage to memorize it?? It's long! I chose _Kubla Khan_ , more
sensibly.

About the spelling _rime_ he says

"Rime. — This word has during the last three centuries been usually but
improperly spelt rhyme, probably through confusion with rhythm"

which seems right e.g.

[https://www.etymonline.com/word/rhyme](https://www.etymonline.com/word/rhyme)

------
dang
I once did a motorcycle trip across Canada when I was young, poor, and eager
to ride motorcycles. One night my plan was to make it to my friend's place in
Montreal, but it got late and I was still in Ontario. Ontario is long. It's
not easy to appreciate how long Ontario is. It was dark and I was tired, but I
wasn't seeing any campgrounds and didn't want to spend money on a motel. So I
kept pushing, as one does at that age, thinking I'd simply will myself to stay
awake.

Suddenly I startled awake with the awareness that I had fallen asleep and had
been riding while asleep (presumably just for a second or two). What shocked
me awake was realizing that these lines of Coleridge's poem had been playing
in my head:

    
    
      Softly and smoothly went the ship,
      Moved onward from beneath.
    

I checked into the next motel.

~~~
flanker
I had this poem in high school and frankly the only one I read countless times
out of leisure somehow it stuck, for me especially the following lines keep
playing in my head:

    
    
           Water, water, every where,
            Nor any drop to drink.
    

and hence Iron Maiden song with the same name is now in my every playlist
since.

~~~
moh_maya
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7zk4as9kzA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7zk4as9kzA)
: for those interested. I think it is one of the all time classics.

------
yesenadam
_The Road to Xanadu_ by John Livingston Lowes is a classic study on the
literary influences in the writing of _The Rime of the Ancient Mariner_ and
_Kubla Khan_ that tracks down the source of almost every word and phrase in
the poems, from Coleridge's wide reading. Highly recommended!

~~~
madengr
Isn’t Kubla Khan opium induced, and someone killed his buzz in the middle of
it? I know Rush uses some as lyrics.

~~~
yesenadam
I _really_ wish you hadn't left that comment.

I guess having the power to delete unwanted child comments would be too much,
but moments like these it's a power I'd really like to have.

~~~
rmcpherson
Why do you wish that?

~~~
yesenadam
Well..it seems to me extremely crass, more like a youtube comment, or
something out of a Bill & Ted movie.

The question wasn't a real question. It seemed some kind of showing off. If
you really want to know the answer you'd google it. If you ask in public like
that it seems something else.

The comment felt like "Drugs! Rock'n'Roll! I'm Cool!" and little else. I'm not
into opiates or rock'n'roll (or fake questions), so it was 100% turn-off.

Why, what value do you think the comment had?

~~~
SummerlyMars
> Why, what value do you think the comment had?

I can't speak for the op, but I found it an interesting bit of trivia. Sure,
they could have googled it, but if they had, I wouldn't know about the origins
of this poem. And thanks to the replies, I now know what a 'person from
Porlock' means. Reading that comment was a win for me. If the person was
jostling for status (and I don't see a reason to think that), well, I still
benefitted.

------
krtkush
Here is the cover of the (part of the) poem sung by British heavy metal band -
Iron Maiden.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7zk4as9kzA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7zk4as9kzA)

~~~
StavrosK
It struck me as funny that you introduced the Iron Maiden. Is there anyone who
doesn't know them? Or are they mainly famous in my neck of the woods?

~~~
timdiggerm
I've heard of them, but never actually heard their music.

~~~
StavrosK
Oh huh, thanks. Fear of the Dark was pretty widely played, but maybe not so
much nowadays.

Here's one of my favorite bands live, Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio on
vocals:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ4aCUlijfw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ4aCUlijfw)

~~~
fishtacos
Dio was amazing at Dio and Dio-era Black Sabbath songs, but listening to War
Pigs by RJD is just painful.

~~~
StavrosK
Yeah, Dio and Ozzie songs aren't well-suited to the other.

------
praptak
I wonder about the significance of the setting in which the story is told. Is
there something special about weddings? I know another literary work where
strange characters appear during a wedding to tell their stories.

~~~
DubiousPusher
Weddings historically have been considered one of the happiest, most spirited
and fun occasions in life. Any banquet or festival implied a break from work
for many and a chance to eat and drink better than usual. They were displays
of excess and festivity when such only came a few times a year or less. People
wrote about them the way someone might write about taking an overseas vacation
today.

I think the placement at the wedding is to contrast the horrowing nature of
the tale. Setting a story at a wedding would instantly evoke a specific
feeling in an audience similar to setting an event at a house party might
instantly evoke a feeling in a modern reader (not the same emotions
obviously).

------
bbody
For those who want to listen here is a reading by Sir. Ian McKellen:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1raSUYAr0s0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1raSUYAr0s0)

------
flyinghamster
Note, of course, that if you want a musical setting for this, the theme from
"Gilligan's Island" works beautifully.

------
gwd
I finally understand that chapter near the end of Dirk Gently's Holistic
Detective Agency a bit better. Going to have to read this, then re-read that
book to see what else I missed.

------
noctilux
I misread the title to be the Rime of the Ancient Maintainer and still think
that would make a good title

~~~
thombat
Especially if we pretend that "rime" starts with a silent "c" (his hair is of
course grey from the many times he wrestled with the question of bumping the
version number vs slipping it out as an surely-that's-still-compatible fix)

------
chachan
I can only read this with Bruce Dickinson's voice in my head

------
damir
Ahhhh, I can still hear "day after day, day after day..." rhyme... Awesome!

------
levosmetalo
> British heavy metal band - Iron Maiden

Is it really necessary to try to "explain" what Iron Maiden is? They are
worldwide famous, and the least famous part of Iron Maiden is that they may be
British.

It's like saying: "this device is produced by an American phone manufacturer -
Apple".

~~~
keiferski
I seriously doubt that Iron Maiden is a household name to most people under
the age of 30.

~~~
riffraff
As a GenX-er I'd love to disagree, but I just remembered when people got upset
that some upstart called U2 just invaded their iTunes collection[0]. Growing
old is hard.

[0] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-11/-who-
is-u...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-11/-who-is-u2-ask-
itunes-users-miffed-at-apple-s-album-giveaway)

~~~
drKarl
Recently I was looking for an Iron Maiden coffee mug for a friend, and I asked
an employee of the shop. She looked at me with a puzzled look and asked "What
is Iron Maiden"? I explained it was a metal band. She probably thought I was
looking for a mug made of metallic material, so she happily pointed me in a
direction and said "travel mugs are over there"

