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In Joe Dator\u2019s cartoon, the Ancient Mariner from Coleridge\u2019s poem is standing barefoot and alone at a cocktail party, with the albatross tied around his neck. To his left, a female guest says something to her partner.<\/p>\nIn Joe Dator\u2019s cartoon, the Ancient Mariner from Coleridge\u2019s poem is standing barefoot and alone at a cocktail party, with the albatross tied around his neck. To his left, a female guest says something to her partner.<\/p>\n
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner<\/em>, Coleridge\u2019s longest poem, is about a sailor who recounts his story of a horrific voyage to a sometimes exasperated man who\u2019s on his way to a wedding, so I first thought the Mariner would be the kind of guest one would want to avoid at a party.<\/p>\n Then I focused on the fact that Rime<\/em> is a poem:<\/p>\n Finally, I focused on the albatross, but not as a symbol of the Mariner\u2019s burden:<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s see how you did.<\/p>\n Many of you presumed that the Mariner misunderstood the meaning of BYOB:<\/p>\n I like that fourth entry best because it adds a component (tension between the two hosts) that\u2019s missing from the other BYOB captions.<\/p>\n The albatross in Coleridge\u2019s poem is a burden or curse, and many of you had the woman recognizing this fact:<\/p>\n Some of you, however, had the woman assuming (or fearing) that the albatross was something else entirely, like dinner:<\/p>\n Or a necklace:<\/p>\n Or a misguided attempt to compete with the Icelandic musician who wore a swan dress to the 73rd Academy Awards:<\/p>\n Here are three more albatross captions I love:<\/p>\n That last caption would be stronger if the comma were replaced with a period.<\/p>\n Many of alluded to the fact that the Mariner\u2019s story is long and depressing, and I especially liked these six entries:<\/p>\n That last caption is very similar but vastly superior to one of my own.<\/p>\n The next two captions address quite different reactions to the Mariner\u2019s tale of woe:<\/p>\n As I did, many of you alluded to the fact that the Mariner\u2019s tale is a poem, but the best of these captions managed to make this allusion without giving in, as I did, to the temptation to criticize poetry: \u201cHe told me all about his cruise in verse.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n As long as I\u2019m acknowledging my shameful tendency to mock art forms I don\u2019t understand (which includes not just poetry, but operas and oratorios with scriptural texts), I want to highlight two captions that address another art form I don\u2019t appreciate as much as I should:<\/p>\n The next three captions were, I assume, submitted by people with more than just a passing familiarity with Coleridge\u2019s poem, as they allude to the lines \u201cwater, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink:\u201d<\/p>\n Whoever submitted the next entry also appears to know the poem well, as he or she remembered that the Mariner told his cautionary tale to a wedding guest: \u201cHe seems to think this is a wedding.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s a fine caption that would be even better without the exclamation point: \u201cI told you we should have brought a gift!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n As most of you probably know, both CartoonStock<\/em> and The New Yorker<\/em> now crowdsource their caption contests by giving readers an opportunity to review and rate each entry, and I\u2019ve noticed that many contestants have recently been making essentially the same topical joke: Any 2020 nominee for President would be better than Trump. For instance, a recent New Yorker contest featured a Harry Bliss drawing of a man walking his dog at night and under a full moon and running into a large and terrifying werewolf. The man looks surprisingly calm and is saying something to his dog, and many of the people who entered that contest had the man saying something like this: \u201cYes…even him. Anybody but Trump.\u201d<\/strong> As it happens, that was one of the entries submitted for our Ancient Mariner contest, and I think it\u2019s the best of the topical jokes.<\/p>\n I always appreciate a caption that highlights the speaker\u2019s obliviousness, and this entry (which has the woman focusing not on the Mariner but on another guest in the background) is an especially fine example: \u201cIs it just me, or is there something odd about that fellow with his leg crossed?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n And here are four terrific captions that don\u2019t fit neatly into any category:<\/p>\n\n
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