“The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner” By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(lines 119-121)
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
water, water, every where,
The repetition of water and the emphasis on “everywhere” creates a sense of vastness, which is one of the components of the sublime according to Edmund Burke. This stanza represents the overwhelming nature of the ocean because it is essentially everywhere, surrounding the mariner and his crew, a deluge on the senses. The language here is relatively simple but something about its simplicity speaks a lot on the narrators astonishment (another component of the sublime) and awe in relation to his surroundings. Think back to a time where something happened to you, something so insane and ridiculous that you couldn’t wrap your head around the situation and your ability for articulation became stunted as a result. Burke says one becomes astonished when the “mind is entirely filled with its object, that it cannot entertain any other”. The mariner is stuck in this exact sort of predicament where his consciousness is fixated on the vastness of the ocean and has become almost paralyzed by its enormity.
Burke also states “A perpendicular has more force in forming the sublime, than an inclined plane”. Think of the bystander in relation to the ocean. The bystander, or Mariner in this case is a vertical body in relation to the vast ocean, which is horizontal, almost infinitely so. But in opposition to vastness, is minuteness. The infinitely tiny and small deserves just as much recognition because both extremes are capable of inciting a sense of the sublime. Sometimes, a juxtaposition of something small in conjunction with something exponentially larger enhances the quality of both. This is also found in this stanza, as the narrator inserts the sense of the small with line 120, “And all the boards did shrink”. “Shrink” shows how the narrator feels minuscule compared to the sea. The mariner internalizes this realization and causes him to become astonished.
Burke says, “we become amazed and confounded at the wonders of the minuteness”. I think this makes a lot of sense when you relate this to the seemingly infinite smallness of an atom. It really is incredible when you think about it. An atom, a singular unit of matter that is so small, that certain laws of physics don’t even apply in their sub-atomic realm. I digress, the point is there is a vastness in things large and wide, but also in the world of the minute.
-J.Lo
