The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to row. The pilot's boy goes crazy and laughs, thinking the mariner is the devil, and cries, "The Devil knows how to row". As penance for shooting the albatross, the mariner, driven by guilt, is forced to wander the earth, telling his story over and over, and teaching a lesson to those he meets: After relaying the story, the mariner leaves, and the wedding guest returns home, and wakes the next morning "a sadder and a wiser man". The poem received mixed reviews from critics, and Coleridge was once told by the publisher that most of the book's sales were
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner every where, | Nor any drop to drink" has appeared widely in popular culture, but usually given in a more natural modern phrasing as "Water, water, everywhere | "But not a drop to drink""; some such appearances have, in turn, played on the frequency with which these lines are misquoted. The poem is referenced in the script of the 1939 film "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". The Iron Maiden song "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" from their fifth studio album "Powerslave" (1984) was inspired by and based on the poem, and quotes the poem in its lyrics. A 1971 episode