AP English: Literature and Composition s4
AP English: Literature and Composition
Romanticism/ Gothic Literature: “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Study Guide
1. What aspect of the mariner seems to cast a spell over the wedding guest?
2. Why does the ship sail to "the land of ice and fearful sounds"?
3. How does the coming of the albatross apparently affect the ship's course?
4. Why do the mariner's shipmates first condemn his killing of the albatross, and then approve of it?
5. Later, why do they hang it on his neck?
6. As the albatross begins to be avenged, what effects are seen in the natural world?
7. What supernatural force is at work?
8. As a ship nears, how does the mariner manage to cry out? What details reveal it as a ghost ship?
9. Describe the appearance of its crew and their effect on the mariner and his companions.
10. At this point, why is the wedding guest suddenly fearful? How does the mariner reassure him?
11. How long does the mariner suffer "Alone on a wide, wide sea" and under whose curse?
12. What act finally enables the mariner to pray? Was it a spontaneous or a premeditated decision?
13. How does nature reflect the change in the mariner?
14. With the crew dead, how is the ship manned? What spiritual agencies are involved?
15. Now that he has dropped the guilty weight of the albatross, is the mariner forgiven and released from suffering? Explain.
16. At what point in the journey is the curse dispelled?
17. What elements of the supernatural are described in this part of the poem?
18. What finally happens to the ship, and how is the mariner saved?
19. Why is the pilot's boy frightened?
20. What service does the hermit perform?
21. What is the mariner's final doom or sentence?
22. What strange power does he have?
23. How does the mariner's tale affect the wedding guest?
24. What is the theme(s) of this poem?
25. What might the albatross have symbolized in Coleridge's own life?
AP English: Literature and Composition
Romanticism/ Gothic Literature: “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Study Guide
1. What aspect of the mariner seems to cast a spell over the wedding guest?
2. Why does the ship sail to "the land of ice and fearful sounds"?
3. How does the coming of the albatross apparently affect the ship's course?
4. Why do the mariner's shipmates first condemn his killing of the albatross, and then approve of it?
5. Later, why do they hang it on his neck?
6. As the albatross begins to be avenged, what effects are seen in the natural world?
7. What supernatural force is at work?
8. As a ship nears, how does the mariner manage to cry out? What details reveal it as a ghost ship?
9. Describe the appearance of its crew and their effect on the mariner and his companions.
10. At this point, why is the wedding gust suddenly fearful? How does the mariner reassure him?
11. How long does the mariner suffer "Alone on a wide, wide sea" and under whose curse?
12. What act finally enables the mariner to pray? Was it a spontaneous or a premeditated decision?
13. How does nature reflect the change in the mariner?
14. With the crew dead, how is the ship manned? What spiritual agencies are involved?
15. Now that he has dropped the guilty weight of the albatross, is the mariner forgiven and released from suffering? Explain.
16. At what point in the journey is the curse dispelled?
17. What elements of the supernatural are described in this part of the poem?
18. What finally happens to the ship, and how is the mariner saved?
19. Why is the pilot's boy frightened?
20. What service does the hermit perform?
21. What is the mariner's final doom or sentence?
22. What strange power does he have?
23. How does the mariner's tale affect the wedding guest?
24. What is the theme(s) of this poem?
25. What might the albatross have symbolized in Coleridge's own life?