The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Facilitator:    Mac McNeill, mcneil0115@comcast.net, (970) 337-2012           Dates:            Fridays, September 25 – October 16, 2020 (4 weeks) Note Starting Date
Time:              9:30 AM-11:00 AM Text:              See Notes Below Presentations:  Not required Location: ZOOM Discussion, Class limited to 10

The English poet, Samuel T. Coleridge, didn’t leave an enormous body of poetry but his masterpiece, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, ensures his spot in the pantheon of great English poets.

Coleridge reaches back to the English ballad form, but only as a starting point. The critic James Russell Lowell said, “Coleridge has taken the old ballad measure and given to it, by an indefinable charm wholly his own, all the sweetness, all the melody and compass of a symphony.” We feel the music of his rhyme and meter, but behind it we sense that Coleridge is trying to pass on a deep understanding of life and living. To understand the meaning, obsolete words and his symbols must be discussed and understood.

Join us on Zoom for four weeks, as we study the poem and some of its interpretations as an imaginative travel adventure, a Christian allegory, and an environmental ethic. As time permits, we’ll also look at some of the major illustrators of the work.

Any copy of the Rime will suffice for the class, as long as it has the marginal glosses (short explanations by Coleridge adjacent to the text) and, preferably, line numbers. The book can be purchased online or from any bookstore, for less than ten dollars. There are also texts available online. The class will be limited to ten people so that everyone has a chance to take part in the discussion.

“With my cross-bow / I shot the albatross.” Let the story begin!