In Coleridge’s ‘The Rime with the Ancient Mariner’, a range of interesting story techniques are more comfortable with explore the essential core of man, the partnership between man and mother nature and how our actions leave an permanent mark around the universe. Released in 1798 in the collection titles Musical Ballads, Coleridge’s presentation from the Mariner’s physical and religious voyage proceeded to go against the medical tide in the Enlightenment Time before where reason was applied to every area of society. The Mariner’s phantasmal story causes the wedding guest to emerge a ‘sadder and wiser man’, with the audience left within a similar point out.
Comprehensive use of natural imagery features paramount significance in the composition. The personification of the organic surroundings right away creates a impression of otherworldliness, placing the target audience in a position of unfamiliarity and intrigue. Ice ‘crack’d and growl’d and roar’d and howl’d, unsettling imagery connected with predatory animals. In effect the natural adjacent appears to reply to the activities of human beings, an idea perhaps unfamiliar with the reader but which will supports Coleridge’s idea of the inseparability of man and the universe, or perhaps the physical as well as the metaphysical. This is an idea that modern day viewers can love with the menace of global temperatures rising, a product of man’s negligence towards the utilization of the world un-renewable resources. Further use of the personification of nature the moment referring to the ‘broad and burning face’ of the ‘Sun’ heightens the idea that Coleridge’s natural world appeared wrathful towards Mariner’s action as the ‘burning face’ of the Sun projects the of anger to the audience.
Coleridge’s use of emotive imagery is not only limited nature, but through the Mariner’s voyage, the spiritual world becomes visible towards the reader. A deeply distressing view of death and suffering comes forth with Coleridge’s characterisation of ‘The Woman and the fleshless man’. Coleridge brings the idea of morality to our lives when comparing loss of life to a person with ‘Jet-black’ bones and suffering as being a woman with ‘skin since white as leprosy’. The sickly set are portrayed as negotiating for the Mariner’s soul, which though seems a great abstract thought to the reader, effectively shows the mental torment in the Mariner who also witnessed his fate determined before him. Coleridge to some extent presents the Mariner is actually a state of purgatory where his sense of guilt consumes him. E. Electronic Bostetter in ‘The Nighttime World of The Ancient Mariner’ suggests that a numbness consumes the Mariner’s both physically and mentally as his becomes ‘adrift in a entirely arbitrary and malign cosmos’, an presentation supported by the thought of the Mariner being over a spiritual, radical voyage since oppose to just a physical 1.
The concept is increased by referrals Christianity over the poem. The reader witness the progression by an anti-Christian perspective together with the shooting in the Albatross to the Mariner’s getting back together which changes his perspective on the natural world. The anti-Christian feeling is provided in the next stanza, ‘At length did cross an Albatross/ And an that were a Christian Soul/ We hailed it in God’s name’. The power of redemption is showed when the Matros tried to hope for his sin, yet could not as he was not truly sorry, ‘I look’d to Heaven, and try’d to pray’. Nevertheless it is when the Mariner found appreciate the natural world, through Coleridge’s brilliant description with the ‘water-snakes’ using their colours ‘Blue, glossy green and purple velvet black’ is when the Matros ‘blessed them unaware’. On the other hand R. T Brett declares that the Mariner’s sudden realization of the beauty of the organic world does not win The lord’s grace, nonetheless it is to The lord’s grace making him more receptive towards the spiritual electrical power. As Coleridge was still a Unitarian clergyman in 1797, the reader refers to how Coleridge’s own religious beliefs of redemption and repentance are in the composition. The faith based parallel among Coleridge plus the narrator results in the idea that probably through the narrative voice, Coleridge is exploring his personal sense of morality.
The Mariners killing in the Albatross can be described as symbolic manifestation of unique sin. Experts however have hot on to argue that on a meaningful level, the ‘death of two hundred males in atonement for the death of one bird is usually an silly outrage to traditional man values’. In saying this kind of, it does not appear that Coleridge is fighting that the existence of the Albatross was more important than that of the ‘ghastly crew’, yet that the blood-lust of man is no justification for severe killing of God-given life. Christian symbolism is improved by Coleridge’s choice of the marriage scene, a Christian sacrament with superb importance. The very fact that the Matros felt that necessary to inflict his tale on the unassuming wedding customer shows that the moral meaning of redemption holds superb significance. The wedding guest arguable represents the ignorance in all of the of us, as mankind could forget to take a step back and consider the significance of our actions. The Matros, although not even close to heroic, supplies a window in the soul which in turn both the current day and modern-day reader may well not have considered. Coleridge effectively uses an unrecognisable, whimsical setting to provide a tip into everyday life.
Furthermore, Coleridge adopts a metre with good internal rhymes and standard stresses which in turn add a blues quality for the poem-‘Alone, alone, all most alone/Alone for the wide vast sea'(Line 234). The lullaby quality with this line juxtaposed with the perception of heaviness leaves someone is a state of odd unease with all the deliberate integrating of the sing-song rhyme plan with the idea of suffering. This technique is also exhibited in Line 117, ‘Water, water every where/Ne any drop to drink’. In effect, the Mariner appears insignificant the moment placed in the vast benefits of the sea. The repetition of ‘Alone’ and ‘Water’ provides a soothing quality to the reader, however when juxtaposed with the theme of isolation is deeply unsettling. Coleridge’s impression of estrangement is heightened by his use of archaic, fourteenth hundred years diction including ‘kirk’, ‘betwixt’, and ‘eldritch’ which spots the Mariner and the audience in an unrecognisable historical context. However the fact that the reader will not know the specific time period, permits more give attention to the human head which is central to the knowledge of The Rime.
Coleridge’s use of challenges in The Rime reflects key moments of significance to the reader. The utilization of iambic trimeter in Line eighty, ‘I taken the Albatross. ‘ places the emphasis on ‘shot’ when read out loud as go against sb/sth ? disobey to the utilization of Iambic tetrameter in Line seventy nine ”Why look’st thou and so? ‘” with my combination bow’ whereby there is a much emphasis on ‘look’st’, ‘so’, ‘my’ and ‘bow’. Owing to the truth that this poem is a ‘tale’, it is vital to consider how the poem would have read to the wedding guest. For example , Coleridge sporadically inverts the word purchase of a few lines to include a musical quality to The Rime, ‘Through utter drought all dumb we stood'(Line 159). Extended use of repeating further engages the reader, ‘The Ice was here, the ice was there/ the ice was all around’ to focus the readers’ focus on essential aspects not to be overlooked in the vast length of the composition. The lullaby- metre includes a hypnotic and enticing result while the last lines with the stanzas carry on the whole the highest emphasis. The poignancy on this line is usually further emphasised by the period, allowing the reader to indicate.
To summarize, Coleridge effectively uses a unique narrative strategy in ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ when exploring the inseparability of mankind as well as the metaphysical community, epitomised once said, ‘He prayeth very well who loveth well/ Both equally man and bird and beast. ‘ Extensive usage of symbolism and natural images paired up with the folk-like, hypnotic develop of the composition encapsulates Coleridge’s emphasis on the understanding of the supernatural word to arrive closer to God and the fact.
[1] E. At the Bostetter ‘The Ancient Mariner’ (1962)
[2] R. T. Brett, ‘Reason and Thoughts, (1961) pg. 101
[3] Irving Looby ‘On Getting Creative’ (1929)
