The Rime Of The Ancyent Marinere Analysis

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

The multiple repetitions of the word “fish” embody the vulnerability of the abundance of prey (4, 6, 8, 12, 24). The threat within ecosystems is embodied through the continual use of “fish”. These fish not only represent themselves as being unlawfully preyed upon but also represent the collective term for prey in the poem. The prey within this scene are referred to as the prize especially if the “wisest and fattest fish” were caught (24). The significance of the prey is found within their role of their ecosystems. Where the fish seem to be vulnerable prey in the sight of the fisherman, the fisherman seems to be also vulnerable prey to the fish.

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:

This story has the exciting theme of a test of man working in harmony with nature, while also against it. The protagonist is determined to fight defeat with all of his will with honor, pride, and bravery. At the same time, the author adds in foreshadowing, hinting at the sail. Being filled with ugly patches and soot, it symbolizes total defeat. For the marlin, the hook on his mouth symbolizes the exact same thing, but they both keep working toward their end goal. Both of them are completely at realization of another powerful them: to kill, or be killed. It is for the two brethren that a specialized Death looms right around the corner, but they continue nonetheless. The author uses vague and subtle imagery alongside with repetition to describe only the necessary, but not the deeper part of the story. Readers are only presented with the tip of the

Bishop’s manipulation of form further intertwines the reader with the speaker’s three-fold experience of catching, analyzing and then releasing the fish. Although she could have shortened “The Fish” or divided it into several stanzas, Bishop presents her poem in a compact lyric of seventy-six free verse lines, all in one stanza spanning across two pages. At first glance, the poem almost resembles a long descriptive list, particularly because each line of the poem is approximately the same length. Yet, a closer analysis reveals Bishop’s effective method of transposing the speaker’s active thought process into words. In a sense, the poem’s form cleverly mirrors its content, inducing readers to actively engage with the text.

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.

Unlike the wandering narrator, the seafaring narrator focuses his descriptions of the community that is present in nature. The seafarer the utterly rejects the notion that a “sheltering family / could bring consolation for his desolate soul” (25-26). This “sheltering family” (25) that the seafaring narrator alludes to in this line is the exact form of close-knit family that the narrator in “The Wanderer” laments for desperately. While the seafaring narrator offers striking similar descriptions of the landscape being “bound by ice” (9), he does not focus on these descriptions to dwell on the loss of an earthly community. Instead, the narrator in “The Seafarer” finds the landscape that he inhabits wonderfully abundant with natural — even spiritual — elements that are commonly associated with an earthly community. In the barren landscape, the seafaring narrator discovers “the wild swan’s song / sometimes served for music” (19-20) and “the curlew’s cry for the laugher of men” (20-21). These vibrant and vivid descriptions of the natural world that the narrator discovers in the harsh,

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.

Using the senses of seeing, feeling, and hearing in The Rise of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Coleridge demonstrates the use of many sensory details. The appearance of the Ancient Mariner, the Nightmare Life-in

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.

Symbolically, the sea is what keeps him apart from the world and that creates exile. There are a lot of symbols and images being used to prove the writer's point: "In icy bands, bound with frost, with frozen chains, and hardship groaned around my heart." (9-11). The images represent how he feels and how he sees his life at that moment. Symbolic gestures such as, "The song of the swan might serve for pleasure, the cry of the sea-fowl, the death-noise of birds instead of laughter, the mewing of gulls instead of mead." (19-22), suggest that sounds can play an effect on a person.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a parable of a seaman's crime against nature (pointlessly killing an albatross) and his repentance by blessing the lowly water-snakes.  Setting the poem in the Middle Ages in the then-unknown seas near Antarctica, the poet is able to make his narrative credible and give the reader what is called 'the willing suspension of disbelief.'  "

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, as a product of its culturally inscribed author, presents a confused Unitarian world view consistent with that of the Romantic Movement of its time. It attempts to exemplify this view within an unpredictable and often mysterious universe, and by rebuking the hegemonic ideologies held by the text’s cultural antagonists, seeks to grant the awareness of an often unreasonable world populated by its reader’s passionate persona.

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.