How does Coleridge tell the story in part 3 of Rime of the Ancient Mariner

In stanza 7, Coleridge deviates from the traditional ballad form, this time to make the reader aware of the threat that the shape imposes on the Mariner. Within the sestet, Coleridge uses a number of literary devices in order to communicate the danger the Mariner’s ship is now facing. We see the poet use elemental imagery with the quote, ‘the western wave was all-aflame.’ The pairing of two conflicting elements, water and fire, almost seems unnatural, and is an example of the poem’s supernatural theme. Indeed, the imagery is used to indicate to the reader that the Mariner is now dealing with something supernatural. Coleridge also uses symbolism through the quote, ‘that strange shape drove suddenly betwist us and the Sun.’ At this point, the Mariner is blocked from any source of light, and arguably, as God created light, this means he is completely cut off from God, and as a result any kind of assistance from God is being obstructed. Essentially, the mariner is unable to be protected or defended against any kind of harmful or supernatural being by this point. Similar symbolism is used in stanza 8, as ‘the Sun was flecked with bars’, suggesting that the sun has now been imprisioned by this object. The quote together with the simile, ‘through a dungeon-grate he peered’ implies that whatever has imprisioned the sun is perfectly capable of encaging the Mariner’s ship, increasing the fear felt by the Mariner at this moment in his story.

In stanzas 10 and 11, the reader learns that ‘Death’ and ‘Life-in-Death’ are in charge of the mysterious ship. The personification and capitalisation of these two figures communicate to the reader the extent of their power. Coleridge triggers shock in the reader by abandoning the expected rhyme scheme, having an abccb rather than the routine and typically ballad-like abcb scheme, Coleridge’s manipulation of structure through capricious punctuation also adds to the shock; ‘is that Death?’ A total of five questions are asked in stanza 10, creating a sense of both danger and uncertainty. In stanza 11, Coleridge is able to evoke shock from the reader once again when depicting ‘Life-in-Death.’ The reader is first told that ‘her locks were yellow as gold,’ as the simile is fairly conventional, containing the typical romantic and regal imagery, Coleridge is able to fool us until he reveals that ‘her skin was white as leprosy.’ The juxtaposition between ‘gold’ and ‘leprosy’ presents her as this liminal figure, whilst she has certain characteristics of a conventional seductress type; she is still ghost-like, even demonic.

In stanzas 15, 16 and 17, Coleridge implies to the reader that Life-in-Death and Death’s trivialised game of death has led to the mariners’ deaths’ with the exemption of the Ancient Mariner. Already, on the first line of the 15th stanza, the ‘star-dogged Moon’ suggests that change is near. The Mariner communicates his constant guilt to the reader by prolonging the first line, ‘one after one’, the caesura, used to emphasise the slowing down of pace, also helps to reflect his remorse about the other mariners, who he feels responsible for. However, by the 16th stanza he speaks in a somewhat detached way as speaks with mathematical language, rather than emotionally engaged language, ‘four times fifty living men,’ despite his guilt. Alternatively, the Mariner may have become desensitised after, apparently, centuries of telling this story. Coleridge uses onomatopeoia in order to create a more vivid perception in the reader’s mind, ‘heavy thump, a lifeless lump.’ The internal rhyme is used to heighten our auditory and visual senses even more, as it echoes the sound created by ‘thump’. The onomatopeic language is also used to echo the fact that the Mariner is now completely isolated. In the final stanza, we see another example of the Mariner’s feelings of guilt when he references his own shooting of the Albatross, ‘every soul…passed me by like the whizz of my cross-bow.’ The Mariner’s routine remark about the Albatross at the end of each part suggest that his guilt is long lasting, as it has remained with him ever since. Essentially, the quote implies that his shooting of the albatross has resulted in the 200 deaths of his fellow mariners; part 3 leave us with the sense that the Mariner is now isolated, as well as wrapped up in guilt.