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THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge & illustrated by Ed Young

Pub Date: March 31st, 1992
ISBN: 0-689-31613-5
Publisher: Atheneum

A prolific illustrator (Caldecott winner for Lon Po Po, 1989) takes on one of the 19th century's most enduring narrative poems, providing six double-spread and two single-page illustrations in glowing, impressionistic pastels plus many vignettes rendered in charcoal. From its elegant jacket—the title, gold on wine, imposed on a bird's-eye view of the ethereal albatross flying up from the ghostly ship on a turquoise and emerald sea—this is a handsome edition. The b&w drawings break the long text, helping modern readers to visualize the action and sometimes reflecting the horror, though the understated style is not intrusive and leaves one free to imagine details. The more dramatic, richly colored pastels may draw new readers to this story of ghostly adventure, terror, retribution, and penance; a few will glory in the magnificent language, and some may even take note of the message for our times: ``He prayeth best, who loveth best/ All things both great and small.'' (Poetry. 12+)