The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems

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Genre: Works by individual poets: 16th to 18th centuries; Works by individual poets: 19th century; Literature - Classics / Criticism; Literature: Classics; English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Poetry / General;

Average Review: 4.5 stars

Review: Wherefore thou stoppest thou me? : 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is a haunting and strange poem. The great memorable lines of the opening , ' It is an ancient mariner / and he stoppeth one of three/ by the long grey beard and thy glittering eye / wherefore thou stoppest thou me?/ lead us to a kind of enchanted and impossible world. The tale itself of the slaying of the albatross of the cosmic coordination in response to the evil of Man has a certain Biblical flavor which connects the story with Jonah . The work as a whole I have always found perplexing in its ultimate meaning, but strong in its great poetic lines. (Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink) In another great poem in this collection ' In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree ' Coleridge 's great musical power and mystical sense is again felt .This scattered man of ideas this long- suffering lonely genius the incredible master of the mind's digression, this supreme talker and goer- on- and -on did in his youth also write great poetry . There is much much beauty here amid the musings and meanderings of this great wandering and wondering mind.