The Rime of the Ancient Mariner An Analysis “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a tale of crime and penance on the high seas. Written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poem takes place on a vast and unforgiving sea, where an old mariner must come to terms with his sins and the folly of humankind. Although, the core story of the poem is agreed upon, its finer details and intricacies remain a highly debated topic among literary critics. In my opinion, it is the story of the heavy price one must pay for disrupting the order of nature. Others debate that the tale is about the penance one must pay after committing a crime against God himself. Regardless, the tale remains that of a man who spent his life atoning for his crimes. Samuel Taylor …show more content…
The term lyrical ballad was actually coined by Coleridge and Wordsworth as they were the first to combine the genres. Lyrical ballads are typically composed of four line stanzas and an alternating iambic rhythm of tetrameter and trimeter. In a lyrical ballad, lines one and two rhyme with lines three and four respectively; however, Coleridge does not always adhere to this pattern. In addition, Coleridge also has some stanzas which are up to six lines instead of four and will at times use internal and visual rhyme instead of, or in addition to, external rhyme. As for the archaic script of the writing, it invokes a feeling that the story and in turn the mariner, are much older than they actually are. “Though Rime of the Ancient Mariner doesn’t strictly adhere to the perfect ballad structure, these slight technical manipulations at places, have created beautiful and miraculous effects, which adds to Coleridge’s achievement.” (Khullar …show more content…
After the death of the albatross which “In this case…stands for all animals.” (Hochman 148), their ship is left stranded on a barren, windless sea. The shooting itself is senseless, the act without meaning. “That is, killing an animal apart from the purpose of survival, Coleridge seems to say, is a crime, i.e., murder, notably against the animal but against all of nature, especially one policed by spirits.” (Hochman 148). After drifting for days or perhaps even weeks, the crew is visited by the spirits of death and living-death. The spirit of death claims the lives of the crew while the spirit of living-death curses the ancient mariner to spend eternity on the windless sea. Lost and now alone on an endless ocean, the ocean mariner gives up hope of ever knowing anything else, and in his effort to shut out the blistering sun and taunting waves, he begs for a chance to repent. “Ironically, it is the “slimy”, “rotten” creatures themselves that finally comfort the Ancient Mariner and allow him to pray.” (GradeSaver, 4). Although, the Ancient Mariner experiences an interlude or of peace with the sounds of the skylark and gentle whispers of the wind, this “…does not transform him in the way the blessing of the water snakes did. The act of blessing
Coleridge and Poe are both known for writing incredible horror stories. There most famous stories are The Raven, Poe, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge. Both stories were the first of their kind and were written around the same time. These poems have many things in common and many other things not in common. The main focus here is the symbolism of the birds in the poem. The poems are in fact based around the birds and their meanings. There are three main points to compare between the symbolism of the birds, they are; the birds both being an omen, the birds giving a feeling of remorse or prosperity, and the birds creating a false hope.
In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner is telling his story to a bypassing guest at the wedding, and he is describing the experience of being alone at sea surrounded by only water and his dead crewmates. Coleridge creates dramatic suspense and mystery in this passage through the uses of repetition, simile and imagery.
The Seafarer highlites the transience of wordly joys which are so little important and the fact thet we have no power in comparison to God.
Roughly halfway into the poem, his religious outlook is revealed as he expresses how “the joys of the Lord are hotter for me than this dead life, loaned on land” (64b-65). Even though the hardships of a seafarer appeals to the speaker, he thinks of himself as a “dead” man who would rather enjoy “the joys of the Lord” (64b-65). The speaker addresses the unexpectedness of death for those “who dreads not the Lord” and the utter instability of the earth (106). “The Seafarer” presents the idea that the Lord is the only stable thing in the universe and the cure to the inner conflicts of the speaker. The speaker’s continued explanation of the short life of earthly things emphasizes this idea. The sea travel before ultimately and undoubtedly becomes a metaphor of the spiritual journey of a devoted Christian.
The resolution of the Mariners decision caused him and his shipmates to fall into a curse, which led the Mariner into an eternal penance. The Mariners penances was to retell the story of what a Mariner's choice against nature he made and the events that he went through at sea. After the death of the Albatross, the Mariner felt as if he was pull down by a curse. The vengeance of the curse occurs as a result of his actions, leading towards the Mariner's shipmates souls being taken away. Following the death of the Mariner's soul, the Mariner began to experienced redemptions against the decisions he
The mariner reconciles his sins when he realizes what nature really is and what it means to him. All around his ship, he witnesses, "slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy sea" and he questions "the curse in the Dead man's eyes". This shows his contempt for the creatures that Nature provides for all people. The mariner begins to find his salvation when he begins to look on the 'slimy things' as creatures of strange beauty. When "the mariner begins to find his salvation when he begins to look on the 'slimy things' as creatures of strange beauty" he understands the Albatross is a symbol of nature and he realizes what he had done wrong. The mariner is forgiven after sufficient penance. The mariner's experience represents a renewal of the impulse of love towards other living things. Once he reconciles his punishment is lifted. The bird, which is hung around his neck as a punishment, falls into the water and makes the change from punishment to penance.
He has to feel a pain in his chest that becomes unbearable until he sees a certain soul that is the right one to tell. No matter what. In the long poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge has three lessons about human life: supernatural, pride, and suffering. In “Rime” by Sam Coleridge, the mariner goes through many supernatural events that scare him into submission. Coleridge does a great job of describing the scenery around the boat that the mariner resides in.
As the ancient Mariner described his adventures at sea to the Wedding-Guest, the Guest became saddened because he identified his own selfish ways with those of the Mariner. The mariner told the Guest that he and his ship-mates were lucky because at the beginning of their voyage they had good weather. The mariner only saw what was on the surface -- he did not see the good weather as evidence that Someone was guiding them. Also, when he shot the Albatross, the Mariner did not have any reason for doing so. The Albatross did nothing wrong, yet the Mariner thought nothing of it and without thinking of the significance of the act, he killed the bird. At this, the Guest was reminded of how self-absorbed he, too, was, and the sinful nature of man. At the beginning of the poem he was very much intent on arriving at the wedding on time. He did not care at all about what it was that the Mariner had to tell him; he did not want to be detained even if the Mariner was in trouble. Instead, he spoke rudely to the mariner, calling him a "gray-beard loon", and tried to go on his own way.
Overall “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is poem that seems like a simple story told by a sailor about his woes at sea. But Coleridge uses many details to make symbols throughout the story for the reader to interpret and see the connections between it and religion. Whether it be through the Christ like albatross, which most would just see as a simple bird, or the woman on the boat showing how the lifestyle might be fun but ultimate leads to nothing we see that these small details create a bigger story than what is just on the cover.
The mariner realized that his pride blinded him to the fact that the life of the albatross, and subsequently the lives all of God’s creatures, was just as valuable as his. He was cursed because he thoughtlessly killed the Albatross. However, after he finally realized the gravity of his actions, he found forgiveness. Ambitious actions committed without contemplating the consequences are the cause of human fallibility. Only through further ambition and perseverance can one hope to ease the consequences that may arise. The goals that Life-in-Death set the mariner towards, forgiveness and love, were only reached because of the mariner’s further actions. Human ambition can be somewhat fickle in nature; it can hurt or help depending on if one considers
The catalyst for the emergence of Christian symbolism occurs when the mariner commits a sin by murdering one of God’s creatures. By killing the albatross, he inevitably brings about a series of trials amongst himself and those aboard the ship. Though the significance of this sin is first unseen by the mariner, supernatural forces quickly condemn his actions as a severe crime against nature. With no real reason, the mariner kills the albatross and soon realizes the magnitude of his actions. Viewed beyond simply a good luck charm, “At length did cross an Albatross, Through the fog it came; As if it had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God’s name” (ll. 63-6). The idea of the Albatross representing Jesus Christ is a direct parallel in the Christian religion. The death of the Albatross is reminiscent of the death of Jesus in that both died as a result of another’s sin and betrayal of God’s word. Similar accounts of betrayal are portrayed ...
The Mariner’s punishment/penance was to be Nomadic, moving from land to land, telling others about his story. He must confess his sins to random strangers to warn them of the terrible consequences thoughtless actions can have. Scholar Seamus Perry comments, “We never learn why the Mariner shot the bird, but his protracted suffering is described in agonising detail,”(Perry). Coleridge purposefully goes into major detail about the Mariner’s suffering, because actions done in childhood can affect
The albatross is the main topic Coleridge uses for symbolism. Coleridge uses different symbols in this poem but they are not as important as the albatross. An albatross is a bird associated with food and protection. The poem states that the albatross is “good omen to the seamen” (Coleridge 671). The albatross helped the men for nine days bringing them away from the mist of the fog. By its behavior, it brings peace and comfort to the men. Knight finds the albatross to be a “redeeming Christ-like force,” (1). Then the mariner kills the bird for no particular reason. Burke states, “by killing the harmless creature… man’s separated himself from nature” (6). It seemed that he believes himself to be
According to Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia, an allegory is described as a fictional literary narrative or artistic expression that conveys a symbolic meaning parallel to but distinct from, and more important than, the literal meaning. This is true in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is an allegory that symbolizes the inherent struggle of humans facing the ideas of sin and redemption. In writing this poem, Coleridge spent four months of sustained writing upon his purpose of supposing that supernatural situations are real. This purpose is seen clearly in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", which demonstrates salvation, and the power of sympathetic imagination. The story of the ancient mariner takes place on a sea voyage around the horn of Africa and through the Pacific Ocean to England, which Coleridge uses to symbolize the pass into the spirit world of guilt, retribution, and rebirth.
Samuel Coleridge demonstrated physical and spiritual nature throughout his longest poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. To the Romantics going against nature was as immorality to God. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the Mariner shoots the albatross which symbolized a punishment of nature by way of the spiritual world. Throughout this poem, Coleridge describes the unrest of the ocean, a scorching sun, water-snake encounters and many other characteristics from a physical perspective. When the ship goes off course due to a dreadful storm the albatross leads them out of the dangerous conditions, however, the ancient Mariner quietly proclaimed, “With my cross-bow, I shot the albatross.” (lines 81-82).