1817 Map with Gloss

In 1817 Coleridge finally published the poem himself in his own collection but now with an extended gloss that sought to 'explain' and interpret the base text alongside it, largely offering a Christian allegorical reading of events and outcomes. (The earlier 'Argument' anticipates this gloss which is far more extensive). When we spatialise the poem and visualise it in graph form the gloss appears as a separate paratext with its own internal chronotopic values. The gloss problematises how we respond to the space of the text as we read since there are in effect two different versions (prose/poetry) now alongside each other.

When the gloss is mapped onto the spaces of the text we can see – as we would expect – that it mirrors the Syuzhet map for the telling of the tale. The Gloss functions as a further hub that connects all the places to which the Mariner travels but does so more succinctly and explicitly than the poem to which it corresponds. E.g. 'The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the line'.