'The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner As Prophecy'

In his article “The ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ as Prophecy” Guthrie claims that the overall moral of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is about “the obligation to love all lives” (204). I would argue that the true moral of this story involves love to be sure, but it is not the one proposed by Guthrie. Instead it is that by loving all creatures we grow closer to God, and by acting lovelessly towards those creatures we grow further from God and open ourselves to punishment.

"With my crossbow I shot the Albatross"(Coleridge 446). The killing of the albatross in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was very much a loveless act as proposed by Guthrie. In this action the mariner acts lovelessly towards the albatross which is one of God’s creatures. By killing the albatross he grows further away from God and opens himself to punishment. " His fellows openly disapproved of the deed. They were thus not guilty with the mariner, and the Polar Spirit could not punish him without punishing them; so the fair breeze went on blowing” (Guthrie

Though the mariner is spared he is also in some ways still being punished. He will be used to spread his story, and what he has learned from it. “I pass, like night, from land to land;/ I have strange power of speech;/ That moment that his face I see,/ I know the man that must hear me:/ To him my tale I teach”(Coleridge 458). In spreading his tale to those that need its lesson in some ways the mariner has become a prophet. In this way he is the closest to God he has been in the poem both in the way that he “loves all lives” but also in the way that he is sharing what he has learned from his punishment (Guthrie 204). “He prayeth best, who loveth best/ All things both great and small;/ For the dear God who loveth us,/ He made and loveth all" (Coleridge 459). He has learned that loving all creatures both big and small brings us closer to God because God has made all and loves