Use Of Tone In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Tone in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner [1] Throughout The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Coleridge’s use of tone defines the themes of the poem, crafting the meaning of the didactic piece through the subtle manipulation of tone. [2] From beginning suspicion to concluding revelation, constantly shifting tone mirrors the sway of the sea, rocking from hope to despair as the Mariner is consecutively delivered and damned. [3] Reverent praise is eclipsed by murderous condemnation, peaceful calm shattered by raging storms, and the unwilling reader is dragged into the poem, the Mariner grasping one’s psyche through his rapidly shifting tone of speech. [4] Riddled with duality, drenched with contrast, the poem is defined not just by what is said,

[6] The Mariner, “enters as a disruptive force, an ‘it’ that violates the ‘merry din’ of the wedding,”creating a contrast of tone that wavers between the happy ceremony of marriage and the bleak tragedy of the Mariner’s tale (Kipperman 133). [7] Tone continually shifts throughout the poem, each time serving to emphasize a disparity between elements and themes in the Mariner’s story. [8] A mix of fear, joy, and captivation begins the poem, quickly establishing this trend while guiding both the events of the story and the motifs behind the work as a whole. [9] Perhaps the greatest tone shift in the entire story is that of the albatrosses entrance, “thorough the fog it came… a Christian soul” appearing from the endless ice, the “drifts the snowy clifts,” a symbol of hope in their “dismal sheen” (Coleridge 55-65). [10] The diction of the previous stanzas, “dismal… the ice was all.. crack and growled…” all convey the hopeless hostility of this new region, while the Albatross, a saving grace, a sign of hope, is seen coming through the fog of hopelessness as a “Christian soul,” a sign of God. [11] A rapid change in tone upon the entrance of the albatross provides context for the heresy of the Mariner’s violence, later seen as an act against God and nature itself, emphasized by the importance tone has placed upon the creature. [12] This divine condemnation is

[17] One such isolated moment is the “Mariner’s blessing of the water snakes, which many have interpreted as an isolated moment of relief amid the poetic narrative’s phantasmagoric turmoil”(Hillier 12) [18] Amid the ghastly recollections of the Mariner, this isolated incident provides a brief respite of comforting elation, a complete difference in tone from the general theme of the poem. [19] The lighthearted, merry phrasing of this portion sets it apart from the rest of the piece, the Mariner’s revelation of love and joy providing a peak from which the gradual decline begins anew. [20] Moreover, the unending “curse in a dead man’s eye” is eclipsed by the “happy living things,” creating “springs of love,” the Mariner finding that “my kind saint took pity on me” (Coleridge 261-287). [21] The prior wretched hopelessness (unending “curse in a dead man’s eye”) gradually turns to joyous declarations of love (“I blessed them unaware”), the shift in tone indicating the temporary reprieve from his punishment as he finds the beauty of nature and God (“my kind saint took pity on me”) that had previously been out of reach (“never a saint took pity on my soul in agony”)(Coleridge . [22] This respite is only momentary, before the trance ends and the tone returns to the standard somber reminiscence of the Mariner, proving that his curse is truly permanent, not