He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:[64]
A sadder and a wiser man
He rose the morrow morn. 625
NOTE.--The Ancient Mariner was written in 1797. The plot was suggested
by a dream related to Coleridge by one of his friends. While the story
is his own invention, he took several points from Shelvocke's Voyages
and accepted a few hints from Wordsworth, who furnished also two or
three lines of verse. In the beginning the two poets intended to work
together, but this plan was found impracticable, and Coleridge
proceeded by himself. It is easy to believe that the plot originated
in a dream, for the completed poem is one of the strangest, most
fantastic dreams that ever formed themselves in a poet's brain. So far
as its moral import is concerned, the production will hardly bear close
scrutiny, although it teaches the duty of loving all God's creatures,
both great and small. The prolonged suffering of the Mariner is a
punishment far too severe for his thoughtless act, while his four times
fifty comrades, who endure horrible tortures before dying, have been
guilty of no crime whatsoever. Still it is not necessary that every
piece of literature should teach a consistent moral lesson, and _The
Ancient Mariner_ can be enjoyed for its marvelous pictures and its
weird melody.
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