Quotes from book
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Some modern editions use a revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss. Along with other poems in Lyrical Ballads, it is often considered a signal shift to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic literature.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

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

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“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.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“The fair breeze blew,
The white foam flew,
And the forrow followed free.
We were the first to ever burst into the silent sea.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

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

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“Since then, at an uncertain hour,
That agony returns:
And till my ghastly tale is told,
This heart within me burns.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was white as leprosy,
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

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

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“He went like one that hath been stunn'd,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man
He rose the morrow morn.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Similar authors

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo
Samuel Taylor Coleridge220
English poet, literary critic and philosopher 1772–1834
Matthew Arnold photo
Matthew Arnold166
English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector… None
Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo
Henri-Frédéric Amiel50
Swiss philosopher and poet None
Heinrich Heine photo
Heinrich Heine61
German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic None
Giacomo Leopardi photo
Giacomo Leopardi18
Italian poet, philosopher and writer None
Edgar Allan Poe photo
Edgar Allan Poe126
American author, poet, editor and literary critic None
Percy Bysshe Shelley photo
Percy Bysshe Shelley246
English Romantic poet None
William Blake photo
William Blake249
English Romantic poet and artist None
Robert Browning photo
Robert Browning179
English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era None
Robert Southey photo
Robert Southey51
British poet None