“Rime of the Ancient Mariner”by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• An ancient mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding. Although the wedding is about to begin, the wedding guest is mesmerized by the old seaman and listens to the strange tale he tells.

• The ancient mariner describes a voyage during which a fierce storm drove his ship off course toward the South Pole, a land of “mist and snow,” where it was surrounded by towering icebergs.

• When an albatross appeared, the ship was freed from the ice and sailed north. The bird followed the ship, a friendly companion to the crew until the mariner senselessly shot it with his crossbow.

• After killing the albatross, the mariner and the crew were cursed, and the voyage was beset by ghastly supernatural events. The crew dead and the curse lifted, the mariner returned home.

• The ancient mariner travels from “land to land,” telling his story to expiate his sin of killing one of God’s beloved creatures. Stunned by his tale, the wedding guest becomes “a sadder and a wiser man.”

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