The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). It was first published in
Lyrical Ballads, with a few other poems in 1798. The Lyrical Ballads were
written and published jointly by Coleridge and his good friend William
Wordsworth (1770-1850) by whom most of the poems were written. Coleridge’s most
outstanding contribution to romantic poetry is his treatment of the
supernatural. When Coleridge and words worth wrote the “Lyrical Ballads”,
Coleridge took the supernatural as his field and undertook to naturalize it. The supernatural that he uses are common superstitions
that all people of his time held to.
Do
not take Nature for granted. This is the most important lesson that The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner brings to us. This timeless poem is excellent example of
romantic imagination. The idea
of the supernatural appears clearly in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poems.
He makes use of many elements from supernatural to highlight feelings and
special situations in order to achieve his pre-thought morality lesson
concerning human-beings and their intervention in natural life. Among these elements,
we can find conscious magical, religious or unknown forces that most of times cannot
ordinarily be perceived except through their effects. Coleridge takes bits and
pieces of mythology and symbolism from Greek and Roman myth and Christian
scripture and manufactures a modern ghost story complete with visits from Death
and his grisly accomplice, Life-and-Death.
The
author mingles natural and supernatural in order to create a “convincing” plot.
With these supernatural elements the poet has artistically interwoven pictures
of Nature like the sun shining brightly at the outset, the mist and snow
surrounding the ship, the freezing cold of the Artic region, slimy creatures
creeping upon the sea, the moon going up the sky with a star or two beside it,
the water snakes moving in the water in a variety of colors.
And
some in dreams assured were/ Of the spirit that plagued us so;/ Nine fathom
deep he had followed us/ From the land of mist and snow (II.31-32). We can plainly see how supernatural presents itself on
this stanza: a spirit that lives nine fathom deep in the water, which,
according to researches, has a great probability of being based on the Greek
divinity called Poseidon, the god of the seas.
Finally an albatross emerged from
the mist, and the sailors received it as a sign of good luck, as though it were
a “Christian soul” sent by God to save them. One can believe that the
albatross is a symbol to Christ, who came to earth to save us: the albatross
arrives to save the mariners and their ship, and the reward for this generosity
is his execution. From the
moment the mariner kills the bird, retribution comes in the form of natural
phenomena. It stops raining; they have no more water to drink and all the crew
live moments of desperation. Day after
day, day after day,/ We stuck, nor breathe nor motion;/ As idle as a painted
ship/ Upon a painted ocean.
Alas!
(thought I, and my heart beat loud)/ How fast she nears and nears!/ Are those
her sails that glance in the sun,/ Like restless gossameres?// Are those her
ribs through which the sun/ Did peer, as through a grate?/ And is that woman
all her crew?/ Is that a Death? and are there two? This
excerpt shows us another example of supernatural elements, in which we can
imagine a skeleton ship with a ragged flag running towards the Mariner,
bringing Death and Life-in-Death, two spirits that come to haunt the crew.
The Mariner's salvation comes when
he prays and, unconsciously and full of pity, blesses the slimy sea snakes, and
the albatross falls from his neck, an indication that Nature and/or God has
forgiven his original sin of killing the albatross. The problems are not over
though because the ship sinks in a whirlpool, leaving only the mariner behind.
He is pulled from the water by a hermit and a pilot, who mistake him for being
dead until he begins to row.
Final
considerations
The greatness of S. T. Coleridge’s
The Ancient Mariner lies chiefly in the technique by which the supernatural has
been made believable and convincing. There are a number of impossible,
incredible, and fantastic situations in the poem. The fascinating power in
Mariner’s gaze, the sudden appearance of the mysterious skeleton ship, the
spectre-woman and her mate, the coming back of life to the dead crew, the
sudden sinking of the ship, the polar spirits talking to each other – all these
and other supernatural incidents are scattered in the poem.