The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Changes and there effect In the 1798 and the 1817 text of the, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, There are certain changes. Changes that effect the poem and the way that the reader sees the poem. Some of these changes include reading devices called glosses. There are many reasons for the glosses to be put into the poem. One of the reasons is to help the reader interpret lines in the poem that can be confusing. These glosses are a brief interpretation of the stanza, so that the reader will understand it the way that Coleridge intended them to. An example of this is:I woke, and we were sailing onAs in a gentle weather‘Twas night, calm night, the moon was high:The dead man stand together The gloss reads as followsThe supernatural motion is retardedThe mariner awakes, and his penanceBegins anew (1817; 61)The reader might not understand how to interpret the stanza; they could interpret however they wanted to. Coleridge placed the glosses in so that the reader would understand the Mariner woke up and realized that he had done his penance. These glosses are also there to make the text look more scholarly. It makes the text look a lot neater also. Another change that was made between the 1798 and the 1817 was the spelling. In the 1798 version of the poem the spelling is very old fashion. It makes the reader feel as if the poem was extremely old. In the 1817 text the spelling in the text is much more modern. It seems as if Coleridge was updating the poem to keep up with the times. I believe he wanted to keep people interested in the story so he updated the language to make it easer for people to under stand. Here is an example:The 1798 version:With throat unslack’d, with black lips bak’dAgape they hear’d me call:(1798,38)The 1817 version is written like:With throat unslacked, with black lips bakedAgape they heard me call:(1817,39)The spelling in the 1798 text is obviously mo...
