e the absolute lonesomeness and desolateness of the scene: he
produces in us something of the same feeling of awe and horror that we
should have were we actually in the situation he describes.

[32-8] _Clifts_ means _cleft rocks_.

[32-9] "Like noises _one hears_ in a swound."

[32-10] _Thorough_ is used here instead of _through_, as it often is in
poetry, for the sake of the meter.

[32-11] Besides the joy the sailors felt at seeing a living creature
after the days in which they had seen "nor shapes of men nor beasts,"
they had a special pleasure in welcoming the albatross because it was
regarded as a bird of good omen.

[34-12] Coleridge does not state that it was the albatross that brought
the "good south wind:" he lets us infer it.

[34-13] In what direction were they sailing now?

[35-14] _Uprist_ is an old form for _uprose_.

[35-15] It was this attitude of the sailors toward the mariner's brutal
act of killing the bird that brought punishment upon them; they cared
nothing for the death of the harmless bird, but only for its effect upon
them.

[35-16] Note the striking alliteration in these two lines. Read this
stanza and the succeeding one aloud, and see how much easier it is to
read these alliterative lines rapidly than it is any of the other six
lines. Such relation of movement to meaning is one of the artistic
things about the poem.

[35-17] How far northward had the ship returned?

[35-18] When such a definite picture is presented, close your eyes and
try to see it. Did you ever see the sun when it seemed to have no
radiance--when it was just a red circle?

[36-19] A rout is a confused and whirling dance.

[36-20] The death-fires are a sort of phosphorescent light, or
will-o'-the-wisp, supposed to portend death.

[36-21] The shipmates try in this manner to fasten all the guilt on the
ancient mariner and mark him alone for punishment.

[37-22] _Wist_ means _knew_.

[37-23] _Gramercy_ is an exclamation derived from the French _grand
merci_, which means _great thanks_.

[37-24] In a comment on _The Ancient Mariner_ Coleridge says: "I took
the thought of 'grinning for joy' from my companion's remark to me, when
we had climbed to the top of Plinlimmon, and were nearly dead with
thirst. We could not speak from the constriction, till we found a little
puddle under a stone. He said to me: 'You grinned like an idiot.' He had
done the same."

[39-25] Gossameres are the cobweb-like films seen floa