Abstract
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of the most fascinating and well-known poems by the famed English poet, becoming one of the bastions of British Romantic literature through its immense lyricism and use of metaphor. The poem deals with themes of the violation of nature, the encroaching threat of the Orient and its strangeness on European culture, as well as the stifling nature of guilt, all contributing to a multi-faceted and pluralistic tale that deals with the breadth of human experience.
Proposal
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of the most fascinating and well-known poems by the famed English poet, becoming one of the bastions of British Romantic literature through its immense lyricism and use of metaphor. Telling the tale of the titular Mariner, a sailor who has survived a harrowing journey full of supernatural dangers and deeply philosophical serenity, “The Ancient Mariner” is a poem that has endured countless interpretations by literary critics, each attempting to discern the meaning of this “obscure” and “metaphysical” poem, each finding validity in a different approach (McGann 37). In his casual murder of an albatross, the Mariner sets in motion a series of events that force him to confront his crushing guilt over his actions, as well as brings him closer to completion as an individual. The poem deals with themes of the violation of nature, the encroaching threat of the Orient and its strangeness on European culture, as well as the stifling nature of guilt, all contributing to a multi-faceted and pluralistic tale that deals with the breadth of human experience.
The following essay will address these various themes, using scholarly literature and existing criticism of the poem to support these points. The Mariner’s overall state of appearance from beginning to end (and even through the framing devices) will show the poem’s preoccupation with human transformation due to experience and spiritual searching. The guilt that the Mariner feels will be shown to have a profound effect on his behavior, and even guides his fortunes throughout the poem. Furthermore, his status as a colonizer and colonized figure will be shown to reflect Coleridge’s fear of British contamination by Oriental culture and disease. All of these micro-themes contribute to the establishment of an overarching approach to the human condition that Coleridge attempts with the writing of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
Essay
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of the most fascinating and well-known poems by the famed English poet, becoming one of the bastions of British Romantic literature through its immense lyricism and use of metaphor. Telling the tale of the titular Mariner, a sailor who has survived a harrowing journey full of supernatural dangers and deeply philosophical serenity, “The Ancient Mariner” is a poem that has endured countless interpretations by literary critics, each attempting to discern the meaning of this “obscure” and “metaphysical” poem, each finding validity in a different approach (McGann 37). In his casual murder of an albatross, the Mariner sets in motion a series of events that force him to confront his crushing guilt over his actions, as well as brings him closer to completion as an individual. The poem deals with themes of the violation of nature, the encroaching threat of the Orient and its strangeness on European culture, as well as the stifling nature of guilt, all contributing to a multi-faceted and pluralistic tale that deals with the breadth of human experience.
The Mariner’s state of mind at the beginning of his story is a dramatic change from the end, demonstrating the inexorable power of fate and the universe to provide poetic justice to those who perform wrongs. As is repeatedly established over the course of the story, the framing device of the poem is a wedding that the Mariner has effectively crashed, sitting the Wedding-Guest down in order to relay his harrowing story. The Mariner, with “thy long grey beard and glittering eye,” is established as having gone through a lot, which builds up the anticipation of learning what he will go through over the course of the poem (Part I). This constant change in the Mariner’s state of mind and physical countenance is likened to his guilt over the shooting of the albatross.
The shooting of the albatross, and the subsequent bad fortune that befalls him and his crew, is symbolic of the consequences of violating nature’s covenant. The Mariner has a clear love of the sea, with many verses in Part I focusing on the serenity of the sea, and the rise and fall of the sun. This is a marked contrast to the ice, cold, and storms he faces later in the poem, which he dreads; his own fortunes seem to be echoed in the weather he encounters. His fortune is made worse as a result of nature, as they are beset with bad weather until they run out of supplies: ““Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink” (Part II).The Sun provides a measure of solace each time it appears – along with sky-larks in Part V- but soon turns ugly, as the repetition of the Sun being “right up above the mast” is followed immediately by the stirring of the boat that knocks him unconscious and destroys the ship in a whirlpool.
The Mariner’s exposure to outside influences, and the effect it has on him, is often compared to the fear of the Orient and its many dangers that was occurring at the time of British Romanticism. Sailors, who at the time were the primary visitors to the East from the West, bringing back all manner of goods and stories from far-off lands, were often feared to bring about Oriental diseases and violate racial purity in the domestic order (Mohammed 53). To that end, Coleridge’s poem takes a critical perspective toward the life of the mariner, looking at the inevitable conflicts they would have between Christian security and the unknowns of the East as personified by his many heavenly trials (54).
The albatross itself is introduced from a Christian perspective, solidifying the Mariner’s (and the sailor’s) Western religious affiliation: “At length did cross an Albatross, / Thorough the fog it came; / As if it had been a Christian soul, / We hailed it in God's name” (Part I). The killing of the bird not only betrays nature’s covenant, but God’s; shooting the albatross is described as a “hellish” thing to do (Part II). After the Mariner is knocked unconscious by the ship’s rocking, two disembodied voices (implied to be angels) discuss his plight, declaring “by him who died on cross” as an expletive (Part V). These points establish Coleridge’s world as a Christian one, while the Mariner himself goes through a process of Orientalization that leaves him darker-skinned and “grey-bearded,” the British Romantic figure of someone from the East (Part I).
Ultimately, the shooting of the albatross also brings about a great deal of guilt in the Mariner, which is a recurring theme throughout the poem. Already, the Mariner’s fellow sailors had considered the albatross a good luck charm, which made the Mariner’s choice to shoot it a demoralizing one: “I had done a hellish thing, / And it would work 'em woe: / For all averred, I had killed the bird / That made the breeze to blow” (Part II). In the wake of the shooting, the sailors begin to resent him and make him wear the albatross around his neck to force that guilt upon him: “Ah! well a-day! what evil looks / Had I from old and young! / Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung” (Part II).
This sense of guilt continues as their fortune ebbs and flows; after the Death-ship comes and kills everyone but him, the Mariner still feels their presence weighing down on him. He feels guilty just for surviving: “Alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide wide sea! / And never a saint took pity on / My soul in agony” (Part IV). The agony of his soul stems from his loneliness, but also from his guilt at the actions which led his crew to be killed. He compares himself to the lowly sea creatures that swim around the boat, further evidence of his depression and guilt: “a thousand thousand slimy things / Lived on; and so did I” (Part IV). The Mariner does not feel deserving of life after what he has done, which makes his continued survival just another part of his punishment. However, as per the transformative nature of this experience, he soon “perceives the water snakes as beautiful, and his sympathy with them leads to the love of God” (Kitson 207).
Synthesizing these various readings and interpretations of the poem, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” tells a very basic, universal story of the trials and tribulations of human nature as time goes by. The Mariner represents humanity in its breadth – he is fallible and feels guilt for his mistakes, as occurs with the albatross. He has a perception of fate and luck and whether or not it is deserved, as with the good fortune he has when meeting the Death-ship/ He also feels a sense of obligation to pay for his mistakes, which involves wandering the Earth in order to tell his story: “I pass, like night, from land to land; / I have strange power of speech; / That moment that his face I see, / I know the man that must hear me: / To him my tale I teach” (Part VII). It is this transformative nature (irrespective of Coleridge’s fear of the Orient being the thing that changes him) that comprises the primary message of the poem – man must keep going, no matter what harsh weather it may face.
In conclusion, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” tackles many different themes in its elaborate, rich prose, all centering around the Mariner’s suffering (and therefore, that of humanity). When the Mariner shoots the albatross, he violates the covenant of nature in which all living beings are equal; he also brings upon himself crushing guilt as a result, personified in having to wear the albatross around his neck. The resulting suffering also carries with it shades of the Western fear of the Orient’s diseases and cultural exposure, as the Mariner’s voyages change him into a raving madman who crashes a wedding in order to tell his story. Within all of these myriad readings and subtexts, Coleridge’s poem becomes a work that defies objective assessment, accounting for a pluralistic take on this influential piece of British Romanticism. The various themes come together to comprise a universal assessment of life, death, survival and guilt, allowing the Mariner to be both haunted and empowered by the mission he has to carry on his story.
Works Cited
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Poetry Foundation. 1834.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173253.
Kitson, Peter. "Coleridge, the French Revolution, and 'The Ancient Mariner': Collective Guilt
and Individual Salvation." The Yearbook of English Studies(1989): 197-207.
McGann, Jerome J. "The Meaning of the Ancient Mariner." Critical Inquiry(1981): 35-67.
Mohammed, Mahameed. "The Ancient Mariner: Colonizer or Colonized?." Re-orienting
Education: Knowledge For Empowerment and Freedom (2011): 53.
Annotated Bibliography
Beres, David. "A dream, a vision, and a poem: a psycho-analytic study of the origins of The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner." The International journal of psycho-analysis 32.2 (1951): 97.
In this work, Beres takes a Freudian approach to the Ancient Mariner, stating that Coleridge attempts to use the poem to develop his anxiety towards his mother through his guilt and hostility. Beres is a noted Freudian psychoanalytic critic, and this source will help to get into the various psychological points made about the Mariner, pointing out his guilt and how it is externalized.
Brown, Huntington. "The Gloss to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Modern Language
Quarterly 6.3 (1945): 319-324.
Brown, a noted literary critic, examines the “gloss” of the Ancient Mariner poem, which is the explication of the many meanings found in the poem as credited to Coleridge in the 1817 edition. This will help the allude to the paper’s arguments that the obtuse language is what obscures and elevates the material above Coleridge’s normal prose.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Poetry Foundation. 1834.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173253.
This is the primary text being examined, the Coleridge poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” following a crew’s respective fortunes and misfortunes following the Mariner killing an albatross on their ship. Coleridge’s credibility comes from his status as the author to be examined.
Dyck, S. (1973). Perspective in" The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". Studies in English
Literature, 1500-1900, 591-604.
Noted literary critic Sarah Dyck’s article analyzes the contribution of various points of view that Coleridge inserts into the poem in order to fully illustrate their meaning. This article will help to establish the scholarly pluralism argument in the paper, noting that many critics have found many meanings in the work.
Kitson, Peter. "Coleridge, the French Revolution, and 'The Ancient Mariner': Collective Guilt
and Individual Salvation." The Yearbook of English Studies(1989): 197-207.
Kitson’s work of literary criticism deals with the guilt of the Ancient Mariner as subtext of Coleridge’s feeling that the French Revolution failed; this subtext is said to pervade the poem. This will provide yet another layer of meaning on the Mariner’s guilt, which is at the center of the paper.
Lee, Debbie. "Yellow Fever and the Slave Trade: Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner." ELH 65.3 (1998): 675-700.
Lee, a prominent and published critic of British Romanticism, examines a Yellow Fever/slavery subtext to Coleridge’s poem, theorizing that the characters undergo Yellow Fever, which may allude to their hysterics and hallucinations. This will help to establish the paper’s points that the Mariner’s guilt is part of a divine punishment to teach a moral lesson about the fears of the East.
McGann, Jerome J. "The Meaning of the Ancient Mariner." Critical Inquiry(1981): 35-67.
McGann, a literary professor at the California Institute of Technology who has published many articles on 19th century British literature, looks at the meaning of the poem in a general sense, synthesizing the common critical approaches to it in order to arrive at a concise answer. This article will be helpful in including the various critical theories behind the work to support the paper’s assertion of pluralism in meaning.
Mohammed, Mahameed. "The Ancient Mariner: Colonizer or Colonized?." Re-orienting
Education: Knowledge For Empowerment and Freedom (2011): 53.
Mohammed, a noted scholar of classic British literature, gleans a colonialism subtext from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” noting the intersection between the Mariner’s exposure to native peoples and the Pacific Ocean, and his establishment as a symbol for Oriental invasion. This will help to further establish the argument of the Mariner’s guilt and suffering as symptomatic of Western fears of the Other.
