Theme of the poem the rime of the ancient mariner. The Natural and the Spiritual Theme in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 2022-10-22
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The theme of the poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the destructive nature of greed and the consequences of one's actions. The ancient mariner, who is the narrator of the poem, tells the story of how his greed for the albatross, a symbol of good luck, leads him to kill the bird and bring a curse upon himself and his ship.
The poem begins with the ancient mariner stopping a wedding guest on his way to the ceremony and forcing him to listen to his tale. The wedding guest represents the rational and practical world, while the ancient mariner represents the irrational and superstitious world.
As the ancient mariner tells his story, he describes how the killing of the albatross brings a terrible curse upon himself and his ship. The ship becomes stuck in a deadly calm, with no wind to sail and no water to drink. The crew members begin to suffer from hunger and thirst, and they eventually turn to cannibalism to survive.
The theme of greed is evident in the ancient mariner's actions, as he kills the albatross simply because he wants it as a trophy. His greed ultimately leads to the suffering and death of his crewmates, as well as his own isolation and guilt.
The theme of the consequences of one's actions is also prominent in the poem. The ancient mariner's act of killing the albatross brings about a series of events that lead to the suffering and death of his crewmates, as well as his own guilt and isolation. This serves as a cautionary tale, warning of the destructive nature of greed and the importance of considering the consequences of one's actions.
Overall, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is a poignant and powerful poem that explores the destructive nature of greed and the consequences of one's actions. Through the story of the ancient mariner and his fateful journey, Coleridge delivers a cautionary tale that serves as a reminder of the importance of considering the impact of our actions on others.
The Rime of The Ancient Mariner: Part 1
It is then that the wind ceases, and the ship becomes trapped on a vast, calm sea. We are not only Coleridge's audience, but the Ancient Mariner's. All the sailors felt that it was the right decision to kill the bird because it brought the storm and the mist. Icebergs as high as the mast of the ship were floating here and there in the sea, and the greenish reflection of the sea makes the icebergs look like emeralds. All the other men are now dead again, and an angel stands beside each body.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Plot Summary
The next step in the cycle, absolution, seems to evade him, however. It plays with the sailors as they feed it. Visibility became very poor and it was getting difficult to navigate. Romantics such as Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Keats valorize the liminal space and state as places where one can experience the sublime. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner text of 1834 by… Poetry Foundation agenda angle-down angle-left angleRight arrow-down arrowRight bars calendar caret-down cart children highlight learningResources list mapMarker openBook p1 pin poetry-magazine print quoteLeft quoteRight slideshow tagAudio tagVideo teens trash-o Argument How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.
What is the theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?
At this point in the poem, the wedding was about to begin. But the eternal punishment called Life-in-Death is reserved for the Ancient Mariner. Believing that it was just like them — a creature of God, the sailors welcomed it on board their ship. The old man, the ancient mariner, tells the wedding guest that he feels compelled to tell him a story about an event that happened while he was at sea. Then he exclaimed that he could then see very plainly that the Devil knew how to row a boat. The poem, thus, begins abruptly without any introduction, and the main character of the poem, that is; Mariner, stops or detains one of the three wedding guests who are going to attend a marriage feast. Like Adam and Eve, the Ancient Mariner fails to respect God's rules and is tempted to try to understand things that should remain out of his reach.
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
As they describe in depth their feelings towards nature, it becomes more clear the differences that these authors have with their relationship with nature. Emerson employs metaphors and analogies to portray his emotions towards nature. The mariner had a habit of telling his story to everyone that he met to reduce his grief. He loves to talk with marineres That come from a far countree. The Sailors and the Mariner become increasingly thirsty, and some sailors dream that an angered Spirit has followed them from the pole. But after the bird has been killed the fog clears and the fair breeze continues, blowing the ship north into the Pacific, and the crew comes to believe the bird was the source of the fog and mist and that the killing is justified. When the fit of agony is on him, his heart burns with remorse till he tells someone his deplorable tale of killing the albatross.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (text of 1834) by…
The reader can also see feelings, emotions, and imagination take priority over logic and facts. There is something so angelic about the way it surrounds us everywhere we go. The second is that the sailors are implicated in the Ancient Mariner's crime. The old sailor continued saying that, as they kept moving ahead in the storm, they met with huge icebergs all around. The bird had never had such food earlier, and it was hovering over the ship because there was food there. According to this interpretation, the writer writes not to please himself or others, but to sate a painful urge.
The holy hermit sitting on his place also raised his eyes towards the sky, and made a prayer to God to save the pilot. The sun seemed to rise from and set into the sea. Thereafter the Ancient Mariner whose eyes sparkled with strange brightness and whose beards were grey with old age went away. Similarly, he tells his story to a person who was about to attend a wedding. In this story, the old mariner, with the crew set on a journey to the south, was hit by an iceberg and their journey was halted. Similar to the sun, the storm that drives the ship southward is also personified as a strong man. Coleridge claimed that he did not intend for the poem to have a moral, but it is difficult not to find one in Part 7.
Like Judas, he murders the "Christian soul" who could lead to his salvation and greater understanding of the divine. Nature is showcased by Coleridge as this wild force that is simply magnificent, terrifying, mysterious and inconsistent. The Mariner, in turn, saves his own saviors, and rows them to land, where he begs the Hermit to grant him absolution for his sins. It flies around the boat, providing entertainment from the drudgery of their work. He wants to pray but finds he cannot. The Mariner, through these lines, says that there were all around the drifts floating ice , and the icebergs though shining presented a sad and gloomy sight. In retribution, it forces the Ancient Mariner to endure eternal torment as well, in the form of his curse.
It is only when the Mariner learns to live with and value the natural world, as he does when he sees the beauty in the Water Snakes that, it seems likely, he previously would have despised, does the punishment against him ease. But when he woke up next morning, he was a more earnest and wiser man than before. Coleridge was one of the founders of the Romantic movement, a literary movement that developed in the early 19th century in response to the Age of Enlightenment. It helped them resume the journey, the bird flew towards the ship every time they were stuck with a problem to move forward. Following from this, liminal spaces and states are those in which pain and pleasure are inextricable.
