The work also generated a significant amount of debate among readers and critics, especially at the turn of the 18th century when Coleridge's career coincided with "this phase in the emergence of the review" introd.
By framing the narrative around a wedding, an event whose nature is in direct contrast with the narrator's theme, the poem takes on a conversational quality, which is essentially what a ballad is all about. It also adds to the drama and shock effect by giving an account of the mariner's misfortunes in the form of a story, rather than simply giving out the details in iambic pentameter Hill.
This aspect of the poem is one of the key points of departure from the predominant style of the day, which was invariably obsessed with urbanity, wit and humour, rather than a serious reflection of one's own thoughts and emotions. Thematically, the poem is about a horrific story of overstepping one's moral limit and facing the consequences with grace and humility. It may be seen as an attempt to break away with the "formal and ordered way of writing" that the Augustan poets were used to at the time Carter , and which the Romantics considered to be too distanced from the poet's actual feelings.
For them, poetic language had to be "closer to everyday speech" and writing should "capture the ebb and flow of individual experience" , the true essence of which has been powerfully captured in The Ancient Mariner. The poem also uses supernatural characters and dramatic twists of fate to emphasize its Romantic vision of an allegory played out in a world that exists only in the poet's imagination.
It doesn't only create new verbal configurations but also constructs imaginary spaces where the reader is invited to accompany the narrator in his journey. It is common knowledge that "Coleridge's most famous poem" took shape during "a long winter walk with Wordsworth and Dorothy", and was inspired by the voyages of "Captain Shelvocke and Captain Cook" as well as the dream of a "spectre ship" told by his neighbour "George Cruikshank" Coleridge, Samuel n.
But, the poem is much more than a simple piecing together of those stories. It is a carefully crafted mixture of fact and fiction where the poet has used his "Imagination" which he famously defined in his Biographia Literaria Vol. I thus: The Imagination then, I consider either as primary, or secondary.
The primary imagination I hold to be the living Power and Prime Agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM.
By narrating the story of an incident in the sea, and through the use of animals, birds, as well as other elements of nature as symbols, the ballad evokes a feeling of being in the midst of nature and a sense of involvement in the entire cycle of the Mariner's fate. From the point of view of Christian mythology, the entire narrative can be seen as a symbolic story, or a parable, that can be compared to similar tales on Biblical themes of temptation, suffering and redemption.
While the Mariner's endless sense of guilt that compels him to tell his story over and over again can be read as a parallel to the Christian belief in original sin, the albatross can most definitely stand for Christ and the numerous spirits as angels who guide the Mariner's way to faith and redemption.
Also, as a moral allegory, the Mariner symbolizes a normal human being who is prone to making mistakes and learning lessons from them. It also seems to represent the universal theme of growing up.
Since it isn't entirely clear why the Mariner kills the bird, one can only guess if it isn't his youthful impulsiveness that leads him to the act. If it is so, then we might argue that the whole journey of the Mariner represents his coming of age, with the physical and psychological horrors he goes through acting as the rites of passage. An eco-critical reading of the poem would yield a slightly different conclusion than the ones drawn so far.
The abundance of the use of words indicating animals, birds and nature's other aspects also goes to show the poet's deep concern with human being's close relationship with the environment. To be sure, the main plot in which the Mariner is punished for harming a bird, which is part of the environment, and later forgiven when he accepts his mistake and surrenders to the forces of nature, helps to illustrate the point in its entirety.
The chief message, in this regard, can be found in the following lines: …He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast. 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, Samuel Thus, as we have seen, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner lends itself to various forms of interpretation or as Richard Holmes pointed out: a Christian allegory of fall and redemption; a moral study of the origins of Evil; a symbolic account of the poete maudit figure; an autobiographical vision of opium addiction; a 'Green parable' of man's destruction of nature and Nature's revenge; and a psychological investigation into post-traumatic stress syndrome with its well-established features of obsessive recall and compulsive guilt.
It is precisely this synthesis of themes, structures and styles that holds the poem together and creates what the poet himself called the "synthetic and magical power that reveals itself in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities" Coleridge, Biographia For this "unity of tone" or the synthesis of all its aesthetic, moral and psychological aspects into a memorable work of poetic creation, the importance of The Ancient Mariner as a representative poem from the English Romantic era cannot be overemphasized.
Carter, Ronald and John McRae. London: Routledge, Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Biographia Literaria Vol I. Shawcross, J.
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