21; ’The scene is set, and already Coleridge’s tightness and conciseness of narrative hastens through. This powerful stanza and the following few paint a picture of enormous imaginative influence, as this ‘ancient mariner’ comes to a disturbing life. The strangeness, mysterious knowledge and experience and a touch of the supernatural combine to hold the wedding guest in place – ‘he cannot choose but hear’. The eerie power of the mariner is contrasted with the joy of the wedding beginning in the distance. Already we see that what we are entering is a world not of the ordered but the disturbing – not the controlled but the uncontrollable. Powerful, rapid changes are undergone in the story, as we learn of a ship sailing from port and then swept into a terrible storm and then a land of ice and snow. The romantic interest in nature is revealed as the breathtaking wonder of massive icebergs float by in complete stillness, causing a shiver to run down your spine.Coleridge’s sudden contrasts prove utter magic:‘ And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald. ’This stanza directly follows the intensity of the storm – no time is wasted as one breathtaking detail of nature is exchanged for another of completely different kind. Here the eerie stillness echoes through the stanza, as one holds one breath darest you may break the overwhelming silence that blankets the image. However they are saved by the mysterious albatross, a symbol of the goodness of God who splits the ice and leads the ship out of the fog.Suddenly, as Coleridge is prone to do, the scene is shattered with the news ‘ I shot the ALBATROSS. ’‘ The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen ’ reads the accompanying note by Coleridge (he is imitating the old style manuscript). The Romantic i...
