An elderly sailor met three people who were going to a wedding-feast.

He stopped one of them, and started to tell him a strange story. I was a sailor on a ship, he said. We left the harbour in good weather, and sailed south for many days. Then the weather changed, and we were driven towards the south pole by a very strong wind. There, we were surrounded by mist and snow and by ice as high as the mast of our ship. Soon, our ship was completely trapped in the ice. But one day, an albatross came through the fog. We called to it, and gave it food. Then a break appeared in the ice, and we began to sail north, the albatross followed us. It became our friend: we called to it, and gave it food. The old sailor stopped, with a haunted look on his face. Whatever is the matter? asked the wedding guest, anxiously. I shot the albatross, answered the ancient mariner with my cross-bow. He went on: As we continued our journey, the weather improved a little; the wind continued to blow our ship northwards, away from the south pole, but the fog still blotted out the sun. My ship-mates constantly told me what a wicked thing I had done, to kill the bird that had brought the breeze. But when the fog did not clear, they changed their minds: they told me that I had done a good thing. To kill the bird that brought the fog. Suddenly, the wind stopped, and our ship was becalmed: we could not move at all. Day after day the ship stayed in the same spot, with the sun shining above us. Day after day, we had no water to drink. Our tongues dried up, and we could not speak. My ship-mates gave me evil looks. Since they felt that I was responsible for their problems, they hung the dead albatross around my neck as a sign of my guilt. The poem is mainly written in four-line stanzas having the rhyme scheme ABCB.

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details

extract from the poem to illustrate these details `By thy long beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me

what this tells us about the ancient mariners character

His appearance and distinguishing features

Long beard, glittering eye and skinny hand

He was an old man who had become weary and weak with his wanderings

? He holds him with his skinny hand, `There was a ship,' quoth he. `Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!' Eftsoons his hand dropt he. He stopped a wedding guest, to tell him his story. It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. The very deep did rot O Christ! That ever this should be! Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea. He was good at narrating a story. He was tormented by what happened and felt he had to tell someone about it.

What he did

How he expressed his feelings

He expressed his feelings with conviction, using powerful images

The images related to weather can be classified as follows: In the Antarctic: And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he Was tyrannous and strong: He struck with his o'ertaking wings

And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold : And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald. After they encountered the albatross: And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did follow, After the albatross was killed: The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free ; All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun, at noon,