The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The rime of the ancient mariner is the longest poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This poem was written between the years 1797 to 98, and its first edition of Lyrical Ballads published in 1798. This poem marks a signal shift to modern poetry as well a beginning of British Romantic Literature. The song relates to the experiences of a sailor who has returned from an extended sea exploration. The Mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding ceremony and immediately starts narrating a story. The wedding guest’s reaction turns from bemusement to impatient to fear to fascinate as the mariner’s story progress, as seen in the language style (Goward & Williams 5). Coleridge uses narrative techniques such as repetition and personification to create a sense of the spiritual, danger or serenity, depending on the mood of different parts of the poem.

Themes

Coleridge uses this poem to explore ideas of sin, isolation and suffering, and lastly salvation.

Pride

According to Christian writings, pride contributes a considerable amount into sin since the time of Adam and Eve. As the proverb goes, pride proceeds a great fall; it is not clear why the mariner shoots the albatross in this poem. However, the answer has something to do with pride. He obviously didn’t intend to bring about drought and death to the crew, but he thought they could do without this whose arrival happened to coincide with a lot of good luck. This poem takes elements from the stories of Adam and Eve and the crucifixion of Christ and weaves them into an entirely original take on man’s pride (Goward & Williams 8).

Suffering. Khan, Shaukat et al. (10) notes that suffering is sometimes the only way to change someone’s habit for good, and it takes a whole lot of this painful medicine in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to make the Mariner realize that all of the nature’s creations are worthy of love and respect. Additionally, the entire poem, especially the middle section concerning the drought, contains enough suffering to last several lifetimes. Our vote for the most cringe-worthy moment is when the mariner bites his arm with an aim of wetting his black lips with his own blood; he also intends to yell.

Isolation. The Mariner in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner seems to have been a pretty friendly guy before he took that fateful trip down to the Arctic, but now he travels the country looking for formerly lost souls like himself. His best friend in the poem is a hermit. Further, he is also unable to return to normal society because of the experience he has gone through. For example, the idea of going to the wedding is very distasteful to him. The low point of the story he tells is when he has left the only man standing on the ship and must suffer the cursing stares of all the dead people (Khan, Shaukat et al. 13–14).

Transformation. Khattak, Jamal, and Shah highlights that (16–17) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner goes through several significant changes at key points, like after the mariner shoots the albatross, but the most important change is the Mariner’s conversation from prideful jerk who hates large birds to pious soul who can pray for even the ugliest creatures. The albatross that hangs around his neck symbolizes the burden of his sins. These sins eventually fall away when he repents and blesses the sea snakes. However, he hasn’t simply wiped away his evil deeds after his transformation. His penance continues throughout the rest of his life, every time he feels the pain urge to tell his story.

The supernatural. Khattak, Jamal, and Ali Shah states (20) that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the exhibit for evidence of Coleridge’s wild imagination, which was helped along by a moderate to heavy opium usage. Moreover, he takes bits and pieces of mythology and symbolism from Roman and Greek myth and manufactures as well as Christian scripture a new ghost and zombie story complete with visits from death and his grisly accomplice, life and death. The power of supernatural forces over the ship. In this regard, the crew helps to make the Mariner’s own feebleness clear. The later is often related to meteorological and astrological events in this poem.

CONCLUSION

It is important to note that Mariner is not a Christian, although he considers himself as one. Further, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is not a Christian Poem.

Works Cited

Goward, S. N., and D. L. Williams. “The Rime of the Ancient(Land) Mariner.” Space News 24.13 (2013): 19–21.

Khan, Shaukat, et al. “A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF “THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER”.” English Review: Journal of English Education 5.1 (2016): 37–48.

Khattak, Nasir Jamal, and Syed Zahid Ali Shah. “The Mariner/Wedding-Guest Paradigm of Ambivalence: An Overview of” The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.” The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 23.1 (2015): 33.

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