Ancient Mariner

This was an entry for a competition run in my uni where you had to use a traditional print method to illustrate a specific extract from Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. (I'll put the extract I was given under the description.) I chose to do a linocut print.

In my extract the mariner hears spirit voices talking to him, and one is angry while the other is gentle. I depicted this using the hands playing with his hair.

I didn't win the contest, but I did make the final six and I'm really proud of this print and really glad I made it. I might submit an actual scan of this print when I finally get it back. I had to submit my 10 best prints and my uni still has them. And they don't have a good track record for returning work undamaged. :S Still, fingers crossed.

Comments and constructive criticism very welcome, as ever.


*****
My extract:
<sub>The sun, right up above the mast,
Had fixed her to the ocean:
But in a minute she 'gan stir,
With a short uneasy motion -
Backwards and forwards half her length
With a short uneasy motion.

Then like a pawing horse let go,
She made a sudden bound:
It flung the blood into my head,
And I fell down in a swound.

How long in that same fit I lay,
I have not to declare;
But ere my living life returned,
I heard and in my soul discerned
Two voices in the air.

`Is it he?' quoth one, `Is this the man?
By him who died on cross,
With his cruel bow he laid full low
The harmless Albatross.

The spirit who bideth by himself
In the land of mist and snow,
He loved the bird that loved the man
Who shot him with his bow.'

The other was a softer voice,
As soft as honey-dew:
Quoth he, `The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do.'</sub>