ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The ungrateful Mariner then shoots and kills the albatross with his crossbow, whereupon the ship is becalmed for days on end and the sailors begin dying of thirst as told in the poem’s best-known line, “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”

Detailed explanation-2: -It was first published in Lyrical Ballads, with a few other poems in 1798. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is all about retribution, punishment, guilt, and curse. [1] The Ancient Mariner in the poem has to pay for an impulsive act of killing the Albatross.

Detailed explanation-3: -Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s most quoted (and misquoted) poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, ” tells the story of a sailor who shoots a friendly albatross, cursing himself and his crew. As punishment, he is forced to wear the bird around its neck, making the albatross a symbol of his burden and regret.

Detailed explanation-4: -The mariner shot the albatross because he believed that it was an unlucky omen and the source of their diminished wind. He believed that, once the albatross was dead, the wind would return, and they would be able to cross the ocean at a much greater speed.

Detailed explanation-5: -The sailors feed the albatross, and the bird follows the ship. It learns to come to the Mariner’s call, and it rests on the ship in the evenings. After nine days of feeding and playing with it, the Mariner shoots the albatross with his crossbow.