![]() “Alone on a wide sea! And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony” (245).įor seven days and seven nights he is forced to spend time in solitary, reflecting on the events that have occurred, the eyes of the dead sailors fixed on him with blame. He grieves only for himself, at first, saying “Alone on a wide sea! And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony” (245). One by one the men on the ship die, leaving the Mariner alone and frightened. With a roll of the dice, Death wins the lives of the crew and, Life-In-Death wins the life of the Mariner. A ship approaches and he is dumbfounded to come face to face with Death and Life-In-Death. He has not learned to cherish all of Gods’ creations and he will pay a price for this. The Mariner is angry at his fate instead of remorseful for his crime, and he curses the sea and the creatures in it. The ship and its crew face difficulties as it comes to a halt on the sea. Buchan writes “The shooting is an act, unpremeditated and unmeant, that nevertheless must be accounted for….” meaning that the Mariner must accept accountability for his actions so he can begin to atone for his sins (97). In his essay “The Sad Wisdom of the Mariner,” A.M. The Mariner gives no explanation to the Wedding Guest as to why he killed the bird because he has none. The murder was committed on a whim, with no forethought about the act or the repercussions. The bird was of no danger to the Mariner or the men on the ship, and in fact, was a spiritual guide to safeguard the crew on their excursion. The voyage now becomes a journey of learning important lessons in accountability, acceptance, forgiveness, and repentance.Īfter the Mariner kills the Albatross, it is hung around his neck so he can understand the seriousness of his act, but he is incapable of realizing the full implications at this time. He must also learn to abandon his negative views and openly accept all of Gods’ creatures. The Mariner faces an inner struggle over the crime he has committed, and must understand his actions and perform his penance. ![]() The poem for the most part does as Coleridge intended and gets the reader to at least understand and believe the tale that the Mariner has to tell.Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is about a man on a voyage by ship, who in one impulsive and heinous act, changes the course of his life – and death. He conveyed his point of religion to the reader by making the reader subconsciously fall prey to the images and thoughts he instilled in their minds. The poem is written in a brilliant way that can convince the reader to think in whatever manner Coleridge wants them to.Ĭoleridge wanted people to understand the Mariner and to be able to relate to him and to understand him. When people are fearful of something they have more of a tendency to fall prey to something and Coleridge takes advantage of this in getting his point across. In a certain sense you could say that through the tale he placed the “fear of God” in people that made them more likely to believe the story. What this meant is that he left understanding the Mariner’s words and learned from the Mariner’s mistakes. It tells how the “Wedding Guest” left after hearing the entire Mariner’s tale and left a wiser man. The Mariner is sharing what he learned on his voyage in these lines. Here he is telling the “Wedding Guest” all about how to live a good life with God and to respect all things that God creates. ![]() In these closing lines, Coleridge basically sums up the whole poem. ![]() The whole point of the story becomes clear in the following lines. Until he began to pray and ask for forgiveness the crew’s souls couldn’t enter Heaven but once he did the curse was broken, his life was saved, and Angels came down from Heaven and took the crew’s souls with them. The deaths occurred when a ship was sited and on it, two women-like figures were playing dice and life won the Mariner and death got the crew. Yet he lives so that he can realize what he has done and be given a chance to ask forgiveness for his sin. This curse, the killing of an Albatross – one of God’s creatures, costs the entire crew on the ship their lives. That is, the reader is to follow, live, and participate with the idea of the poem.Ĭoleridge tells of a Mariner on a ship who makes a sin against God and therefore is cursed. The “Wedding Guest” in the poem represents “everyday man” in the sense that “everyone” is to be at the marriage of the Mariner to life. The Mariner in the poem is telling his tale to a “Wedding Guest” who has no choice but to listen and to believe. The whole point of the poem is to encourage or convince the reader to believe the tale that Coleridge tells. Such creature was to bring them the wind that they needed to put power into the sails of the ship. The Mariner is supposedly responsible for the death of all of the crew on his ship because of his killing of a creature.
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