1st stanza: And i had done a hellish thing,

And i would work ’em woe,

for all averred,I had killed the bird,

That made the breeze to blow,

Ah wretch!, said they, the bird to slay,

That made the breeze to blow:

In this stanza Taylor Coleridge uses old language, for example the word hellish. By using this type of old language it tells us this poem was set a long time ago. The word hellish that he used is similar to the word hell and bad, he used it to say that he knew what he had done wrong[killing the bird]. The other thing that he used in this stanza is repetition for example ‘that made the breeze to blow’. He used repetition to describe to us [the reader] that he is quoting to the crew why he had killed the albatross, which made the breeze to strike the ship and make them stuck in an area full of ice bergs which were surrounding them. Taylor Coleridge uses these type of material for us to examine and look in detail the strong language he uses, which can give us more confidence in our future writing.

 

2nd stanza: Down drop the breeze, the sails dropt down,

Twas sad as sad could be,

And we did speak only to break,

The silence of the sea:

In this stanza Taylor Coleridge uses a lot of language devices to make this powerful and effective. The language devices he has used in the stanza are alliteration and rhyme but also using emotions for us to know how the character feels within the scene. He used alliteration very effectively on the four words ‘Down dropt and Dropt down. This is very effective because it telling us [the reader] That the breeze is repetitively happening and that it is swiftly moving up and down. A powerful way that he has used rhyme in this stanza is for example ‘Sad as sad could be and The silence of the sea’ this makes the two sentences flow effectively together but also as the line ‘Sad as sad could be’ it gives us to think that something emotional is happening and when the line ‘The silence of the sea’ it is referring back to the line before to show that when your sad, straight away into our heads we think of the word silence when someone is sad. Another thing that Taylor Coleridge uses is good at describing a line with powerful emotions. For example ‘And we did only speak to break’ this gives us the idea that the ancient mariner was desperate to speak and something was stopping him from doing that by using the phrase speak only to break, also the emotion in this is the word break, which is showing us in a way they have broke free out of something.