Old English:
The wedding-Guest sat on a stone,
He cannot chuse but hear,
And thus he spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner
Normal:
The wedding-Guest sat on a stone,
Forced to listen and hear,
And then spoke to that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
I think this paragraph is saying that the man/ woman is meant to be at a wedding but instead the Mariner forced him to sit down on a stone and listen to him.
September 29, 2016 at 7:19 pm
Nice work, Tyler. I agree, the only comment I’d make is that I think when Coleridge says “And thus spake on”, he means “And the mariner continued to speak”. I think it’s more of a monologue than a conversation. It’s like he’s as compelled to tell the story as the Wedding Guest is to hear it.