"Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Paper Summary:

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," considered by many scholars as the greatest masterpiece of English Romantic poetry, the psychological themes associated with the mariner's wanderings play a very crucial role in the poem's overall effect; thus, the Mariner himself is trapped in a watery and dangerous world as a result of his own psychological problems which arise from the realms of the unknown. This paper shows, however, that since Coleridge decided to use psychology to tell a good portion of this tale, it is relatively easy to insert other characters into the plot-line which may or may not add more depth and mystery to the poem.

From the Paper:

"Also, the lines "And a thousand thousand slimy things/Lived on; and so did I" (Part IV, lines 15-16) indicates that he sees himself as nothing but a slimy creature cast upon the wide open sea where his journey as the Mariner eventually takes a turn for the worst when he kills the albatross and condemns himself and his crewmates to death. Of course, these "slimy creatures" could be enhanced with the addition of some type of sea serpent or monster, such as a giant octopus or a mythological creature. Since the earliest days of seafaring, sailors have reported seeing unidentified "sea monsters" in almost all of the major oceans; thus, the Mariner, like those early explorers, could have encountered some strange "slimy thing" during this part of the poem."

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