The Rime of the Ancient Mariner-Coleridge

notes: the format is a little off because when I copy and pasted the poem in the word document it messed around with the formatting that is why sometimes that should be indented are not. 

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a story about a sailor and what happened to him at sea. Due to the events on his journey he is on a mission to tell his tale everywhere. There is a lot of symbolism in the poem which can be seen in the Albatross and the spirits throughout the poem. There are quite a few allusions to the Bible. From reading the poem I took the meaning of the Albatross and the spirits to be Biblically related. In the Bible there might have also been a story about a wedding as well.

From Khuba-Klan, Coleridge also alludes to the Bible, so it is no surprise in this poem. The Albatross from the poem is a sign of good,

“At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,	65
We hail'd it in God's name.
It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steer'd us through!”, which could mean that God sent the sailors a sign and that he was looking out for the sailors and steered them clear of the storm. However, the Mariner decides to shoot the bird. Now I do not personally understand why the Mariner decided to do that. But God has given us free choice and it was the Mariner’s choice to do what he wanted. Also Humans don’t make much sense sometimes and I believe the Mariner shot the bird maybe because he believed the bird had serves its purpose or just simply the fact that the Mariner is a known sinner. After the Mariner shot the Albatross he is basically condemned by the other sailors. This is because of two things one that the bird is an Angel and the other, after the bird was slain the mist, fog and snow comes back which ultimately means that the bird was a good omen.  The sailors are upset with his action and they knew that they were guilty by association, “But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves accomplices in the crime.”  100 This is important because when the spirits come the sailors are affected by what the Mariner did. The spirits are the Grim Reapers this is because the poem goes on the sailors are forced to play their game. The Spirits according to the poem seems to play a game and all the sailors are dropping like flies but the Mariner lives, “The naked hulk alongside came,  195  And the twain were casting dice;  "The game is done! I've won! I've won!"  Quoth she, and whistles thrice.” now the Mariner thinks he has gotten away but in fact he has more obstacles ahead. He is alone and from the encounter with the spirits he does realize that he has sinned and does repent. As the Mariner repents the curse is lessened each time. The hermit ends up being God in a physical form. The Mariner was going to drown but was saved by the Hermit and the Pilot. Also the Pilot said “the devil can row” which referred to the  Mariner. Not saying he is exactly the Devil but that he is a sinner. Now this can lead us to the ultimate conclusion about this poem. Coleridge through this poem is trying to tell the reader that life will have many trial and tribulations. But when we are offer help we should take it with gratitude. Humans need to humble themselves and be more like God because we are created in his image. I believe in order for the Mariner to be saved he would have had to repent. Which he did for kill the Albatross if that did not happen the Hermit would not have saved him. The spirits were on the ship to relieve to him his sin by taking away his shipmates. Now the shipmates from what I believe were not punished but rather died and was bought to God because they believed in the good omen of the bird and therefore I think they were saved even before the spirits came. Coleridge use of imagination helps create a story in this case the story of the Mariner, that the imagination is wild and that deep within it there is an underlying message. That is the very reason as to why imagination cannot be suppressed because it helps us discover ourselves and our unconscious. This poem in the end still leaves me very confused. I believe I am missing some points of the poem.