Pink Floyd's Echoes

“I can’t sing it without thinking about Syd.” For the members of the 1960s and 1970s rock and roll band, Pink Floyd, the title track to their album Wish You Were Here uncovers emotional thoughts and feelings regarding their band mate, Syd Barrett, in a highly broad sense. At the height of the Vietnam war, tensions were high in America due to the anti-war movement. For those involved with this movement, a series of different emotions may be evoked from this song.

The theme of Sympathy is the oppressive treatment of both the narrator and the bird, and the imprisonment of the bird and how the narrator sympathizes with it. This is shown through the diction choices which create dark images of mistreatment and sorrow, and imagery that is strengthened in repetition. An example of diction that supports the theme is “...its blood is red on the cruel bars;” this choice of words gives image of a dark, dirty cage with a wounded beaten bird and its cage that is blood red from his wounds; this image is very oppressive and gives characteristics of the prisonization of the bird. The next example of the poem’s theme is shown by imagery and repetition, which come together convey strong flashing images of the imprisonment of the bird and its oppressive feeling. “When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, -- When he beats his bars and he would be free;”, this quote gives imagery to the reader to see a bruised, tired, and dirty bird beating against his cage for freedom. The repetition of the word “when” in the quote gives off the effect to the reader of flashing images one after the other. While the use of the words “bars”, “bruised”, “sore”, and “he beats”, give off the specific imagery characteristic of oppression to the reader’s developing images.

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 short story is difficult to understand since the author wrote the story in a tricky way, made up of hints that need to be put together along with the main symbol to understand it. The cranes representing the old couple are standing among the shoreline together like a loving couple admiring the view. The couple is sitting in the car reminiscing their years together and joking around. Their conversational tone sure makes it obvious how much they love each other. The story starts off describing the couple parked along the shoreline looking at the birds and how fascinated they are by them, specially the woman. The man explains to her how those cranes in specific are very rare and there aren’t many left. The woman makes a joke about the small birds looking like clowns in front of big elegant birds, then the man laughs in a way and she asks him if he is all right, and I believe this is the story’s rising action. The old man then changes his mind and

“Great captain a fair wind and the honey lights of home are all you seek. But anguish lies ahead; the god who thunders on the land prepares it, not to be shaken from your track, implacable, in rancor for the son whose eye you blinded. … Though you survive alone bereft of all companions, lost for years, under strange sail shall you come home, to find your own house filled with trouble: insolent men eating your livestock as they court your lady. Aye, you shall make those men atone in blood! … Then a seaborne death soft as this hand of mist will come

In another case, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” tells a story about an old sailor, the Mariner, and his long and difficult journey across the ocean. The Mariner stops a man going into a wedding, who is called the Wedding-Guest, and insists on telling him his tale. In the beginning of the Mariner’s journey, his ship gets stuck in a never ending field of ice and fog. They have no way of moving, but then,

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:

“Along the marshy shore, two tall and stately birds, starring across the gulf,” (Meinke 196). The cranes serve as an archetype throughout the short story, symbolizing the old couple and their abiding relationship. (“Contemporary Author’s Online” 242). The cranes are almost mimicking the couple; they are blankly staring across the water, patiently waiting for their deliberate death. The reader can find multiple instances throughout the text that some unsuspected affair will follow. “Maybe this is the wrong thing.” (Meinke 196). What is wrong? What is the couple going to do in the car they are

The Open Boat is a tragic tale by Stephen Crane of four men contemplating what seems like their inevitable death. This paragraph above serves as a quality passage on its own and as an interesting part of the entire story as the author repeats it often. The text is a beautiful paragraph, perhaps the most flowery writing in the entire work. Lines such as "to nibble the sacred cheese of life" and "name of the seven mad gods who

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."

Using the simile “like a man in fire or lime” (line 12) the author describe the torture being inflicted upon this man, “floundr’ing” (line 12) as if he were burring alive. Two lines later the dying soldier is said to drowning “under a green sea” (line 14), underlining his extreme pain and misery as he is described as drowning and being burned alive simultaneously.

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.

For reasons not specifically mentioned in the text, the mariner kills the albatross, which can be easily related to a couple of infamous Christian sins.

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

Four varying viewpoints exist concerning what or who the mariner represents, the first being the superficial idea that he is simply the wise old man who imparts wisdom to the younger generations (Williams 1116). Going beyond the literal connotation, the most common and supported argument it that the mariner represents the Christian sinner. The diction chosen by Coleridge often alludes to Christianity, examples include “Christian soul”, ”God’s name”, “[i]nstead of the cross…about my neck was hung”, and “Dear Lord in Heaven” (Coleridge 1616-1632). Howard Creed believes that the mariner is symbolically a poet, due to the fact that he learns “the great truth about the world they live in” and then attempts to communicate it to others through the art of a story (221). The final possibility is that the mariner represents a mother. Repeated connection to conventionally female things like the sea, motherhood, spontaneity/irrationality, and nature begins to support this conclusion. The role of instructing the young, in this case the wedding guest whom “listens like a three years’ child” is also traditionally female, further developing the argument (Coleridge 1616). Overall, the poem is an exemplar at employing Coleridge’s idea of symbol to use the ordinary to show the transcendent, especially Christianity, yielding that the second option is the preeminent choice.