Quotes from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

23 notable lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1798

Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

  1. Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.

    Part II — the becalmed, thirsting crew

  2. It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three.

    Opening lines, Part I

  3. With my cross-bow I shot the Albatross.

    Part I — the Mariner

  4. Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung.

    Part II — the crew's punishment of the Mariner

  5. Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea!

    Part IV — the Mariner after the crew die

  6. Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.

    Part II — the ship becalmed

  7. He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.

    Part VII — the closing moral

  8. He prayeth best, who loveth best all things both great and small.

    Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

  9. A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn.

    Final lines, Part VII — the Wedding-Guest

  10. He holds him with his glittering eye— The Wedding-Guest stood still, And listens like a three years' child: The Mariner hath his will.

    Part I — the Mariner compels the Wedding-Guest

  11. At length did cross an Albatross, Thorough the fog it came; As if it had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God's name.

    Part I — the albatross arrives

  12. The Night-mare Life-in-Death was she, Who thicks man's blood with cold.

    Part III — the spectre-woman aboard the death-ship

  13. The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I.

    Part IV — the Mariner among the corpses

  14. The self-same moment I could pray; And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea.

    Part IV — the curse lifts

  15. A spring of love gushed from my heart, And I blessed them unaware:

    Part IV — the Mariner blesses the water-snakes

  16. He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast.

    Part VII — the Mariner's moral

  17. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free; We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.

    Part II — sailing south into uncharted waters

  18. Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, And cursed me with his eye.

    Part III — the crew die one by one

  19. Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.

    Part VI — simile for the Mariner's haunted dread

  20. Like one, that on a lonesome road doth walk in fear and dread.

    Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

  21. I pass, like night, from land to land; I have strange power of speech;

    Part VII — the Mariner's compulsion to tell his tale

  22. The moving Moon went up the sky, And no where did abide:

    Part IV — the gloss describes the Moon's journey