2008-02-28 Nightmare Voyage

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an incredible poem. Haunting and thrilling, it captivated the reader with its superlative descriptive writing. Coleridge describes the endless sea from the vastness of icy Antartica to the smooth tropical seas. The mariner has visions of sea monsters and Death, who plays a dice game in which Death wins the lives of his ship's crew. The mariner recounts a nightmare voyage to the South Pole from which he alone survives to tell the tale.