"And the bay was white with silent light,..."See in text(The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in Seven Parts)
Often poets will describe an object or event by instilling it with a quality that is incongruent or contradictory to its very nature. In this case, the aural adjective “silent” describes the “light” in the bay, an image than can only be seen.
"Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship,
Yet she sailed softly too:
Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze—
On me alone it blew...."See in text(The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in Seven Parts)
These mirroring, rhyming phrases of “swiftly, swiftly flew” and “sweetly, sweetly blew” also contain two paradoxes. The ship flies “swiftly” but also “softly,” which is difficult for any vessel to do when travelling across an entire ocean. Furthermore, the wind blows on the Mariner but on nothing else around him, underscoring the sheer impossibility of this event.
