The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
 

In my Crofts Classics Coleridege, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is printed with frequent notes adjacent to the verse, distinct from footnotes. For several reasons, including their archaic language, mimicking that of the poem, I've always considered them a part of the poem, or, since they're distinct from the verse, a standard accessory. A few samples:

I'm surprised to find there are versions of the poem that don't include these notes, the one at the Poetry Foundation's website, for instance.

How familiar are these notes? Do you expect them to be included when you see the poem?

If a parody or pastiche of the poem were to include such notes would you be confused or otherwise put off?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

Does this help, Max? — https://www.huronresearch.ca/eng2/te...ner-w-glosses/

Clive

Thank you, Clive! It's good to know when the marginal gloss was added (and to be given that term, with which to refer to it), but it doesn't answer my question.

How familiar is the marginal gloss? Do readers expect it to be included when they see the poem?

I look forward to hearing whether folks here would be confused or otherwise put off by a parody's or pastiche's inclusion of a marginal gloss.

As I always understood it, the glosses were added by Coleridge himself in the 1817 edition. If they are “pastiche” or “parody”, the pasticheur, the parodist, is STC. One thing I take away is how over the years he kept returning to what was his most celebrated poem and adjusting it. The glosses strike me as part of the same process — an effort at clarification and re-presentation. I wonder if this reflects a deep uncertainty about his own poetic genius. His reputation as a poet is based on a very small number of poems, as turning the more than 588 pages of his collected poems makes very clear. Why did he keep tinkering with it? At this point, I’ll defer to others: I certainly don’t regard myself as in any way as an expert on Coleridge, just an inveterate reader of poetry.

Clive

Thanks for your thoughts, Clive. It's Coleridge's endless tinkering that has created my dilemma.

I suppose my question is silly. For broad-viewed readers like you, the poem, of course exists both with and without the gloss. Less broad-viewed readers probably don't think about it at all.

Max, if you are writing a pastiche/parody, why not go whole hog and use everything at your disposal? (Answer: because many publishers won't want to bother with the extra typographical work of presenting them in side margins — especially if you want to publish excerpts in an online venue. Most online poetry venues seem to have only the most rudimentary web-design toolbox.)

For what it's worth, I first encountered the poem in high school, in a condensed version, with the sidebar notes / synopses / chapter headings included. But my high school hadn't bought new literature textbooks in decades. I doubt that many American high schools have any Coleridge on the curriculum at all anymore.

Lack of familiarity with the original shouldn't prevent people from enjoying a pastiche, though, even if they don't get all the in-jokes.

As a kind of footnote to your query, Max, here are the only six poems by Coleridge I have found worth re-reading down the years. They are listed by date of composition. Several underwent revision, sometimes repeated revision. Of the six, my favourites are “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison”, “Frost at Midnight” and “Dejection: an Ode”. De gustibus etc. etc..

This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison (1797)
Christabel (1797 – 1800)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)
Frost at Midnight (1798)
Kubla Khan (1798)
Dejection: an Ode (1802)

All the best…

Clive

Ah! I see I have misread your original query, Max. Apologies! If you are considering writing a parody, I would certainly make use of the side-glosses. Rich pickings, there, I think.

Clive

Thanks, Julie and Clive. And thanks, Clive, for pointing me toward those other Coleridge poems, some of which I doubt I've looked at since college.

Is that true? Do high schools teach any poetry anymore, I wonder? Perhaps only contemporary poetry? I have no idea.

I'm an older millennial and we still read "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in high school. I don't remember any glosses, so either they weren't there or they didn't stick in my memory.

"Kubla Khan" made a huge impression on me as a preteen.