The ballad ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is woven around an atmosphere of mediaevalism. Archaic words like ‘kirk’, ‘kin’, ‘sayth’, ‘spake’ etc. represent the folklore of olden days. The poetic devices commonly used are alliterations, repetitions, similes and metaphors. The rhyme scheme abcb in the stanzas of four lines and aba bcb or aac bcb in the stanzas of six lines gives the desired musical effect to the ballad.
