Symbolism In Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

The mood in The Rim of the Ancient Mariner is enthralled, and it is strongly influenced by the imagery and diction that Coleridge uses. First, Coleridge uses imagery in Part I when he writes; “‘Hold off! unhand me, graybeard loon!’ / Eftsoons his hands dropped he. / He holds him with his glittering eye - / The Wedding Guest stood still/ And listens like a three years’ child: / The Mariner hath his will” (Coleridge 11-16).

Samuel Taylor Coleridge?s ?Rime of the Ancient Mariner? is a piece known to many in some vague way or another. An elderly sailor, a ghostly ship, and the killing of an albatross are all present in many people?s minds, although they may not entirely know the whole tale. Although well-known today, the most activity ?Rime? has seen was in its beginnings. It has its fair share of praise and criticism, praise given posthumously and criticism given while Coleridge was alive. Other than criticisms on the actual text, many people claim that Coleridge borrowed the ideas of others and used them.

As the ghost ship nears, a spell is cast upon the ship and all of the mariner's young crew fall dead. The mariner is able to see the souls of his crew leave their bodies and it is at this point which he begins to feel remorse and guilt. "and every soul, it passed me by, like the wiz of my cross-bow!" (Coleridge 222). the mariner now knows that it was his actions that caused this and must take accountability for what he has done. Coleridge's use of the word "bow" in this quote is very important. It shows that now he does feel remorse for killing the bird because he feels it was as if his own bow killed those men. As the mariner begins to accept all f this information, he begins to realize that this is not his home. This is the home of nature and because he is a guest on these waters, he should appreciate it. "the many men, so beautiful! And they all dead and lie: and a thousand slimy things lived on; and so did I." (Coleridge 236). Now that the mariner has taken responsibility for his actions, he looks to God for forgiveness. Through prayer, he tries to ask for forgiveness but knows that in order to reach it, he must first repent. "I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; but or ever a prayer had gusht, a wicked whisper came, and made my heart dry as dust." (Coleridge 244).

As stated above, another archetype presented here is Jonah. Under this archetype, the crime and the punishment of the ancient mariner will show different meanings. The connection between Jonah and the mariner not only lies on their common crime as sacrilege, but also on the punishment of enduring physical and mental suffer. And through dissecting Coleridge’s Christian and philosophical thoughts, the theme in this poem will be much clearer.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, it was written in the late 1700s. The poem’s setting starts during a wedding, an old mariner stops one of the wedding guests from going into the party to tell him a story. The mariner’s story takes place in a ship where he killed an albatross and everything started to go wrong for him and his crew. When the mariner’s story is ending he says that he has a pain to tell people about his story, this is why he stopped the wedding guest to tell him his story. The wedding guest decides not to go to the party because he became upset, he is now a “sadder” but “wiser” man. Coleridge uses many literary elements to make the story come together such as similes, personification, symbolism

There are many weird things that happen after mariner shoots the Albatross. One of the things that happened is after he killed the bird “fog and mist” started to form around the (Coleridge 100). Another event that happened was “the sails dropt down” and the breeze stopped (Coleridge 107). They was a “Spirit that plagued” them and yells “‘The game is done! I’ve won! I’ve won!’” after she killed all of the ship members except the mariner. (Coleridge 198)

The poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a truly imaginative work utilizing the familiar yet timeless themes of good fortune, the power of Mother Nature, and adventurous voyages over the sea. The Mariner relates the bone-chilling tale of his adventure to a guest at a wedding in his native country. Although the guest succumbs to the Mariner’s tale, he is eager to get to the wedding, which is about to start. Coleridge chose this occasion for the poem as a form of irony, by providing a stark contrast between the two atmospheres and situations in his poem. The moods of weddings are usually joyful and jubilant, emphasizing love and the union between

Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and “The Rime of The Ancient Mariner” there are many instances where metacognitive thinking and knowledge are discussed and presented. The word metacognition comes from the root word "meta" which means beyond. The word metacognition can take many forms including knowledge and when or how to use certain strategies to learn or be used to solve problems. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein we see metacognitive thinking throughout mainly through victor and the creature. Both characters are seen very much throughout the story and through these characters we get a great sense of their metacognitive thinking, successfully in ways but for the main part we see these characters as failed metacognitive thinkers. In

Coleridge utilizes imagery in order to show that the ocean is rotting and worsening from the dryness as a result of the action that the mariner committed. The condition of the sea is deteriorating since the mariner killed the albatross. There is also an indication of slime and that it is moving which could mean the sea is slowly falling to corruption and filth, transforming from clean to dirty. Viewing lines 45 though 48, "About, about, in reel and rout, The death-fires danced at night; The water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green, and blue, and white. The observation of these lines reveal that Coleridge uses imagery to show chaos and negativity that is taking place in the water.

As for the Mariner’s fate and salvation, his obligation to warn people with his story can be linked to the Catholic doctrines of penance and purgatory, where the Mariner must atone for his sins before he can enter heaven. In addition to the poem’s parallelism with the fall of man, Coleridge indicates Christian beliefs through the Mariner’s expressions. After he is adorned with the dead albatross, the Mariner implies that he is a Christian with mention of a cross, saying, “What evil looks had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the albatross about my neck was hung”. When the Mariner says “instead of the cross”, it is suggested to the reader that normally he would be wearing a cross on his neck, an obvious Christian symbol.

It’s easy to tell that the ocean is a mysterious and isolating place from all of the tragic tales we hear from sailors both real and fictional. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and an anonymous author’s “The Seafarer” are quite similar in that they both revolve around said tragic tales told by sailors. However, there seem to be more commonalities between their themes, tones, and messages rather than their seaward-bound settings. But before we can discuss these similar settings and deeper themes, we have to tackle their origins.

The next symbolic theme in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is that of retribution. In lines 143-146 Coleridge illustrates a time of draught for the sailors on the voyage. Without any water to drink they are suffering. This symbolizes the spiritual draught that humans face in Christianity. Without the love for Christ humans are thirsting for spiritual enlightenment and forgiveness--without which they suffer.

It is only when the Mariner began to bless all living things and saw beyond his own self that the Albatross fell off. He then felt a connection with nature and God, for Heaven sent down rain that refreshed the ancient Mariner and angelic spirits led him onward. He needed to change and become penitent before he could be rid of the guilt. In repenting, he was given a penance of life: whenever his heart burns within him, he must tell his tale to those who are meant to hear it.

Coleridge stated that poetry “gives us most pleasure when only generally and not perfectly understood”. He preferred to consider The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere a work of “pure imagination” rather than a textual construction representing a particular cultural ideology. However, his writing of the text as a Romantic poet, espousing all ideologies that the Romantic Movement represented, conditioned his work to be one of passion, mystery and imagination. Due to this, his “purely imaginative” work fosters the dominant discourse of a Romantic outlook on the universe; the protagonists of the text

In 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge published his poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Several editions followed this, the most notable being the 1815 version, which included a gloss. This poem has grown to become well known and debated, especially concerning the message that Coleridge was attempting to impart. The interpretation of the poem as a whole and of various characters, settings, and objects has been the subject of numerous essays, papers, books, and lectures. There are approximately four things that are major symbols in this work, along with the possibility that the structure itself is symbolic.