"Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Paper Summary:

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is a classic example of the Romantic poem. This paper looks at how Coleridge imports his own psychological message within the poem. It discusses how the poem emanates from a realm of psychological magic and madness, which lies in the subconscious mind of the reader as created by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the original "Ancient Mariner," who poetically placed himself aboard a doomed ship detached from reason and steeped in his own psychological wanderings.

From the Paper:

"In Part Four of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," the narrator glances "Beyond the shadow of the ship" and sees ". . . the water snakes" which ". . . moved in tracks of shining white/And when they reared, the elfish light/Fell off in hoary flakes" (lines 49-53). This description at first may seem like a contradiction in terms of the snakes being in the water, but as J. Livingston Lowes points out, "the snakes are indeed deep water serpents that rise to the surface of the sea to breath the air amid the shining whiteness of the waves, yet they appear to be emanating some kind of a glowing light which may indicate that the snakes are true bottom dwellers close to Hell some thousands of feet below" (214). Upon seeing these snakes, the mariner cries out "O happy living things!. . . " (Part Four, line 59) which shows that he is overjoyed to behold animate things in this desolate world on the sea, yet the snakes may also be symbols of his wandering, for they too slither through the oceans without direction or cause."

More papers on "Rime of the Ancient Mariner":

• Comparison Essay # 6390 : "Moby Dick" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
• Analytical Essay # 32950 : "Religious Overtones in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
• Poem Review # 29331 : "Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: