The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Literary Devices

Tone

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Literary Devices Tone

The tone of Coleridge’s poem is foreboding and enigmatic. An ominous mood presides over the poem from the beginning, when the Mariner first draws the Wedding-Guest away from the festivities and transfixes him with his hypnotizing gaze (lines 13–16):

He holds him with his glittering eye—
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three-years’ child:
The Mariner hath his will.

If the Wedding-Guest feels captivated, it’s because the Mariner has lulled him into a state of hypnosis. Indeed, the phrase “the Mariner hath his will” alludes to a theory known as mesmerism. This theory posits the existence of an invisible magnetic force that may be used to compel someone into a trance-like state. This way of compelling the Wedding-Guest’s attention is deeply foreboding, and the narrative that unfolds is full of similarly ominous signs, portents, and supernatural phenomena. Yet however foreboding it may be, the Mariner’s “rime” is also characterized by a profound strangeness that makes the poem fundamentally enigmatic. The Mariner may frame his story as a moral allegory in which he moves from sin to repentance to absolution, but the neatness of this allegorical interpretation isn’t fully satisfying. For example, it doesn’t account for Coleridge’s odd marginal annotations, which often complicate or even contradict what seems to be happening in the poem. Indeed, the annotations provoke more questions than answers.