ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Coleridge writes the poem in the voice of popular English balladeers, like the person who sung the famous ballad “Sir Patrick Spens.” Many of the famous English ballads didn’t have a single, named author.

Detailed explanation-2: -The ship, called the Speedwell, was later lost at Juan Fernandez Island. Others say the poem was inspired by a dream that Coleridge’s friend, George Cruikshank had after reading Thomas James’s Strange and Dangerous Voyage.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Ancient Mariner is compelled to tell his story. Telling his tale is part of his penance for killing the albatross. If you’re asking why he chooses the wedding guest and not someone else, the answer is that the wedding guest had something wrong with him that hearing the tale would fix.

Detailed explanation-4: -The poem begins with an old grey-bearded sailor, the Mariner, stopping a guest at a wedding ceremony to tell him a story of a sailing voyage he took long ago. The Wedding-Guest is at first reluctant to listen, as the ceremony is about to begin, but the mariner’s glittering eye captivates him.