Aged 42. Engraved by Samuel Cousins, A.R.A., after the painting by Washington Allston, from the original picture in possession of George L. Barnard, Esq., London. Published 1854.

S. 7. Coleridges

COLERIDGE'S

ANCIENT MARINER.

EDITED BY

KATHARINE LEE BATES.

WELLESLEY COLLEGE.

"Nothing can be truer than fairy wisdom. It is as true as sunbeams."

DOUGLAS JERROLD

BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO.

CHICAGO

NEW YORK

BOSTON

PREFACE.

On the list of entrance requirements in English liter ature, as recently adopted by the Association of New England Colleges, stands Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." The selection is a happy one, for the reason that the poem, exquisite in melody and imagery, and abounding in nature-pictures equally remarkable for wide range and delicate accuracy, nevertheless produces at first so vivid an impression of spectral horror as to blind the casual reader to its rare poetic grace and charm. But as the poem is dwelt upon in the class-room, the student being brought to realize the marvellous succession of moonlight, ocean scenes, then the agonies of that disordered soul and the frightfulness of the images reflected from its guilty consciousness will but serve to throw into fairer contrast the blessedness of the spirit restored to the life of love, and the peaceful beauty of the universe as beheld by eyes purged from selfishness and sin.

Coleridge at his best is so purely poetical that he is an especially valuable author for class-room use, his mastery of diction, melody and figure tending to culti