Part 3 Flashcards
1
Q
Summary
A
- Mariner and Sailors spend a long “weary time” stuck in the state of thirst on the calm sea.
- As the speck comes closer and closer, the Mariner begins to recognize what it is. However, neither he nor any other member of the crew can speak (because of their intense thirst), so he has no way of drawing the Sailors’ attention to what he sees. To solve this problem, the Mariner explains that he “bit my arm, I sucked my blood, / And cried, A sail! A sail!” With this visceral sacrifice he alerts the Sailors to the approaching ship.
- there is another ship approaching
- Through the ‘ribs’ or ‘grate’ of the skeleton ship, the Mariner perceives its sole passengers: Death himself and Life-in-Death, a woman described with yellow hair, red lips, and haunting white skin. As their ghostly ship comes beside the Mariner’s ship, the Mariner notes that Death and Life-in-Death have been playing dice for the crew. Life-in-Death has won the soul of the Mariner.
-In the moonlight, one by one each of the Sailors turns to curse the Mariner with their eyes. Then one by one, all two hundred Sailors drop down dead and thump to the deck. Their souls whizz by the Mariner like shots from his cross-bow, but he alone is left alive to face whatever penance is demanded of him in his trials.
