On the way to a wedding, a guest was stopped by an ancient seaman, who at first grabbed him with his “skinny hand”, then held him with his “glittering eye”. The wedding guest was horrified, yet fascinated by the strange tale the old mariner started to tell.
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“There was a ship,” said the mariner, as he commenced his sorrowful tale. A storm-blast “tyrannous and strong” drove the ship and crew deep into the southern ocean which was “wondrous and cold”, and full of sea ice.
A great bird, an albatross came to visit the crew. A peaceful creature, the albatross came to the mariner’s ship often. The great white bird was a symbol of good luck for the seamen.
The ship was blown by breezes into a silent sea. The sailors had hit the doldrums - part of the sea that has no wind. And there they stayed for weeks on end, “as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.” The ships water and food ran out, and the crew blamed the mariner, “who killed the bird who made the breeze to blow.” “Water, water, everywhere and all the boards did shrink. Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”
The water seemed to thicken, and came to be filled with slimy creatures that walked on the surface. At night “the death fires burned green and blue and white.” The crew was dying and slowly becoming mad. They blamed the mariner, who wore the dead albatross around his neck in the shape of a cross.
The two terrible figures boarded the ship and started to play dice for the souls of the mariners. “I’ve won, I’ve won!” shouted Lady Death, and at once the entire crew fell dead except for the mariner. As each fell they“cursed him” with “his eye”.
The skeleton ship and horrific characters vanished, and the mariner was left with a horrible sight:
An orphan's curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high;
But oh! more horrible than that
Is the curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.
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This is the the most terrible moment of the story. The wedding guest heard the wedding bells and wanted to leave the old mariner but is held by a terrible force that horrifies and fascinates him.
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The mariner tried to pray, but “a wicked whisper came that made my heart as dry as dust.”
Just when the mariner was without hope,
I watched the water-snakes...
Within the shadow of the ship
I watched their rich attire:
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire...
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware...
Just then the albatross fell off his neck into the sea. The mariner sunk into a deep sleep.
Angels appear and the ships travels quickly to a new destination, propelled my a mysterious spirit “that made the ship to go.”
The mariner awakened to see the dead mariners staring at him. Just has he was reliving the horror, the ship turned and spun into a giant whirlpool.
The mariner is saved by a hermit and a pilot boy who is steering the small boat.
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Just as the wedding party is coming out of the church, the old mariner is saying:
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see,
I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tale I teach...
In the end, the wedding guest is left alone:
Turned from the bridegroom's door.
He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man
He rose the morrow morn.
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