As the saying goes no good deed goes unrewarded. Coleridge, in his poem The Rime of the Ancient

The symbolism in the “Rhyme of the ancient mariner” is said to be an impossible representation of the Christian story of reconciliation from sin, redemption and forgiveness for that sin, but the symbolism in this poem clearly contradicts those views. The poem is one of a great sin committed against nature and the supernatural - being God - and how the wrong doer was redeemed from that sin and his journey into realigning what he had done. The Mariner was punished for his sin by the supernatural and forces of nature while he was glorified by his crew mates for his skill that was shown in killing the albatross with a crossbow. This is often true in Biblical stories and modern day where one is glorified for earthly talents and is given fame, but what they are famous for contradicts God and his law. Other aspects of Christianity are embedded in this poem as well that are easily overlooked like when the Mariner prays to some force he does not know. He is guilty for his transgression and knows what he has done is wrong although the sin was committed with ill will not intended. Lastly this poem displays a value important to Christianity, but also to all other ideologies and the is the topic of justice for crimes committed and the Christian aspect of thats once justice is served salvation is needed and redemption takes place. All of these values presented by symbolism throughout this poem all point toward the idea that the story of the Mariner was meant to serve as an example of the

The Mariner’s tale suggests a larger lesson about human life, expressing that humans are not superior to the rest of Creation and nature. Humans and all other life are equal inhabitants on planet Earth and must therefore treat each other with respect

By killing the albatross, the Mariner sets in motion Christianity’s idea that all except Jesus are sinners, but through repentance one can seek forgiveness and ultimately salvation. However, Coleridge poses a dichotomy regarding the transparency of forgiveness in this ballad. After the Mariner blesses the snakes, the reader presumes the curse was lifted and forgiveness was granted. Although the “Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea” (288-91), the Mariner was compelled to serve a long-term penance of continually repeating his tale, also serving as a constant reminder of his sin. Where as Christianity teaches that by repenting one achieves forgiveness, Coleridge enacts the idea of retribution in order for the Mariner to ultimately attain God’s forgiveness. For example, one of nature’s punishments taunts the Mariner with extreme thirst, causing him to cry out:

Because of shooting the albatross, and cursing it with death the Mariner be came cursed with watching his entire crew die right in front of him. The Ancient Mariner describes the scene as being “cursed with his eye” referring back to how he was the one who doomed all of his crewmates to a horrible death yet his punishment of life in death is much worse (Coleridge428). Victor and the Mariner both realized creating their own moral code eventually made them carry a heavy burden, which they could never live down.

The ancient mariner has albatross hung around instead of the cross which is a sign of bad omen. Similarly to Victor he has himself to blame for putting the curse on his crew members and himself because he should not have disrespected the power of nature.

To begin, let me contextualize and summarize the last these stanzas: the Mariner and his mates, after killing the albatross, are suffering of dehydration. Then, a ship is seen sailing towards the men. However, aboard the ship sails Death and Life-After-Death; they play dice to see who will deal the fate of each man among the Mariner and his mates. Life-After-Death wins one fate: the Mariner’s.

The Rime of The Ancient Mariner is about a man, the Mariner, going from place to place telling his tale; how he comes to love and care for all things that God has graced with life through all his hardships at sea. His hardships and punishments only begin once the Mariner strikes down an albatross with his crossbow. From then on he is lost at sea with his lifeless crew as his only company. To a passer’s eye, his punishment seems a little harsh for killing a simple bird. However, it was not only a creature the Mariner had killed by his own hand, but everything it symbolized.

It eventually turns out that those bars of prison are the shadows of Death’s dead and dying ship, but does this not allude to the approaching change in life that the Ancient Mariner suffers? He becomes trapped in life, to wander the earth forever, spreading his story--a prison of freedom, a cell made out of eternal life. A curse disguised as the world’s greatest blessing. He goes further to describe the boat when he says the line, “Are those her ribs through which the Sun/ Did peer, as through a grate?” This is, on one level, merely continuing the same vein of interpretation as mentioned before, both veins. But on another level, it describes the weariness of the Ancient Mariner, and the old and eaten-away shape his body has taken on over the years--his ribs sharp and bony against even the baggy of rags.

It is this admission of guilt that allows the process of forgiveness for the Mariner to begin. It also allows the Albatross to become a reminder of the Mariner's sin, a representation of Christ's suffering, and a symbol of the Christian cross. In lines 40 and 41 it says, "Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung."

These descriptions reflect the events well enough to determine that the mariner is attempting to accurately relive/retell the events. While making it sound as if it's for the benefit of those that he's telling, the arbitrariness of selecting the audience and the ambiguity of the story's message discredit the mariner's suggestion and imply that the stories' retelling is for the mariner's benefit.

I have interpreted this passage as the ancient Mariner accepting that he did wrong by killing the Albatross and was no longer worthy to identify himself as a man of god. That he will have to live with the repercussions of killing the Albatross and dooming all his shipmates. (He will have to carry his sine in the biblical since that Jesus had to carry his cross in which he would be killed on.)

Originally aiming to land somewhere on the equator, the Mariner’s ship lands in the South Pole, because of a strong breeze from a storm-blast; the Mariner states in his tale that the wind is “tyrannous and strong.” Though suffering a dreadful drought, the Mariner receives the blessing of the cool, wet rain as it pours down. As the Mariner takes in the rain, he begins to think of his crew, who are all dead.

He illustrates his belief that he does not need the good luck of the Albatross. He decides to severe his bonds with the universal cycle of life and love. Following the execution of the Albatross, the Mariner’s luck suddenly changes. He experiences the punishment that comes with the moral error of killing the Albatross. The punishment is isolation and alienation from everything but himself. Thereafter, the "Nightmare," the life in death, kills his crew. He is lost at sea, left alone in the night to suffer, and he has detached from his natural cycle. The Mariner proclaims his misery when he says, "Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! / And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony". To the Mariner, nature has become foreign. The execution of the Albatross causes physical and spiritual decay.

The lines that follow deal with death and punishment.  Part 3, describes how the sailors' "throats unslaked, with black lips baked, We could nor laugh nor wail; Through utter drought all dumb we stood!  I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, And cried, A sail! A sail! "  Then all the shipmates die "Four times fifty living men, (And I heard nor sigh nor groan) With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropped down one by one."  And so the ancient mariner was "Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea!  A never a saint took pity on My soul in agony."  He sat

As for the narrator in “The Seafarer”, Christianity and the belief of an afterlife saves him from ending his own life prior to believing in a place much better than his present and the endorsement of “The Measurer” if he lives on. Besides Christianity being a huge impact in this poem, the author also uses many of the techniques listed by Foster such as using season and weather to symbolize his harsh conditions. As stated by Foster, “seasons have stood for the same set of meanings,” winter, the time of “Death and rebirth, growth and harvest and death”(189-190). In “The Seafarer, the speaker clearly uses the winter weather to show his demise, and also his will of death. Yet besides his suffering, the winter also brought his growth. In that winter time, he realized his goal of life, to repay the debt he owed to his creator. Despite winter conditions, the “hail [that] fell to the ground” also symbolized as a realization as shown by Foster “It’s more than just rain or snow”, this realization revelates in the form of being enlightened religiously (69). Besides hail symbolizing a realization, the entire seafaring trip also exemplifies an important concept, Baptism, or a “rising from the dead”(169). As the speaker started on, his present was no more than a “dead life,” yet, later on, the speaker seems to “[rise] from the dead” as he realizes his demise, after the entire trip out to the sea, he returns and realizes that he had been dead all along, and that “life pertains to the love of the Lord, hope in heaven,” not “[performing] the greatest glories”(84,