THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

BY S.T. COLERIDGE

The author S.T.Coleridge belongs to Romanticism, a

literary period between 1776-1837. This period is represented by
authors such as: John Keats, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth,
George Gordon. Through their work they wanted to present some
of the events of that period such as: the industrial revolution, the
three social classes (landowners and aristrocacy, businessmen and
industrialists, the masses), the war with France. By 1800 Britain
was the most industrialised country in the world. The gouvernment
introduced some reforms. It was given the right to vote for industrialists. The factory act
prevented children under 9 from working. A taxation system was also introduced and it was
signed the Act of union of Ireland and United States. The country wanted stability, political and
social democracy.
The publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 by W. Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge
marked the start of the Romantic movement in English literature. Intellectuals around Europe
were thrilled and inspired by the notion of Revolutionaries rising up and demanding their rights.
New factories were build and various mechanical means of producting goods more
quickly and cheaply than those made by hand were invented. The gap between the rich and the
poor remained wide. More people moved from the country to the city. At the time, only few
children went to school as more poor children worked in factories.
Through his work S.T. Coleridge showed some values, the importance of nature, life and
peace. The poets of Augustan age saw the artist as an interpreter showing the beauty of what was
already known while the romantics viewed the artist as a creator. The author wanted to help the
artist feel and learn not only from what is known but also by imagination, finding his own
identity. It was a time when religion had to be found in his mind and soul. They saw life like a
dream and appreciated the values of life. John Keats wrote in one of his beautiful poems: "Life is
but a day...a dewdrop...a rose's hope." The romantics wanted to help the artist overcome the
problems of the world and find inner hope, peace and life.
 The author S.T.Coleridge wrote the poem as a suggestion of his friend William
Wordsworth. He suggested him to write a story about an adventure at sea and the result was The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner. S.T. Coleridge became the poet of imagination, exploring the
relationship between nature and mind. Coleridge married in 1795 and spent much of the next
decade living near and traveling with Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy.
In his lyric and meditative poem, Coleridge used the idea of supernatural. It is a
conversation poem in which the narrator addresses a single figure. In this case the wedding guest
who listens silently to the story. This is a frame story which begins in the third person and ends
up in the first person.
Poems such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner demonstrates a bizarre style full of
fantastic and magic. The poem is written in loose, ballad stanzas, four or six lines long and
ocasionally nine lines long. The rhymes AB or ABABAB- scheme, archaic language. Through
this poem he shows the meaning of life, the beauty of nature and the development of the
individual. The Albatros is a creature considered to bring bad luck but in God's eyes all creatures
are important, even a snake. The fog and bad weather conditions show confusion, instability and
depression. It can represent England's society at that time. The presence of God can be
interpreted as hope and desire. The moon represents God and his power and authority because he
can control everything even the Mariner.
Coleridge considered love to be the source of power. He develops a story that illustrates
the importance of balance and harmony among all living things, which may also be read as a
parable, presenting the fall of man. The bird poses no threat to him or to his shipmates but it
remains with the ship day by day, a faithful companion until the mariner kills it, making a
deliberate act of destruction. Many years after killing the albatross, the gravity of his sin still
haunts him. The mariner must confess his sin, teaching people a spiritual truth.
As the albatross symbolizes good luck and positive events, by killing it the Mariner
breaks the natural connection between man, nature and fate, which leads to misfortune.
The writer also used vivid description in his poetry through repetitions: water, water everywhere
but not a drop to drink, the ice was here, the ice was there, the ice was all around.
The word Rime in the title has three representations. It represent the mariner’s story, his
rhyme and a metonymy for the poem itself. On the other hand, it can symbolize the crime of the
mariner. Thirdly, the rime is also a meaning of a frost coating of ice. Because of the many
repetitions of the word, the ice comes to symbolize death, as the crew has no escape and no hope
to life among all that amount of ice.
Other important symbols in the poem are the Sun and the Moon which represent to sides
of God: the Sun represents the angry, vengeful God whereas the Moon represents the benevolent
God. Bad, troubling things happen to the crew during the day but favorable things occur during
the night. While death wins the lives of the crew members, Nightmare Life in Death wins the life
of the Mariner, who will endure a fate worse than death as punishment for killing the albatross.
He has to live on, wandering the Earth, driven by guilt, tell his story and teach a spiritual lesson
to all those he meets.
The author wants us to be the ''Mariner'' because he wants to transmit us his feelings and
thoughts. The cross-bow represents the man's power of destroying the environment, God's
creation. S.T. Coleridge through his imagination explored the relationship between nature and
mind, religion and soul, life and death. The motif of prayer to bring hope and a lot of symbols
such as: the sun, the moon, the dream and dreaming made one of the most representative poem
of the time.