Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge a friend of William and Dorothy Wordsworth was also a talented writer. Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was quite lengthy but one of my favorites. He tells of a tale of a mariner who undergoes supernatural and extraordinary events while out at sea. The mariner is at a wedding, telling his adventures to a wedding guest who seems to be entirely consumed into his story rather than the wedding that is going on right before him because “he can not choose but hear.” He tells the reader and the wedding guest that he was blown off course due to storm. Then “at length did cross an albatross,” that came to save them (328). It seemed like a gift from God because he describes the albatross as a “Christian soul” (328). For some reason, the mariner decides to kill the mariner and the crew is furious for killing such an innocent and good luck creature. It did nothing but to help them while they were in distress. Killing the albatross brought along a series of unfortunate events to the crew. It was kind of like the saying what goes around comes around. Nothing good came out killing the albatross, and especially it didn’t deserve it. This tale makes you think about respecting animals and nature, because they are all God’s creatures which are precious. He suffers and realizes his wrong doings and his punishment begins to subside. When he seeks forgiveness for his wrongdoings most of his guilt is lifted off his shoulders. I believe the mariner is trying to tell the wedding guest and also the reader that God’s creation is priceless and we should take care of them. When he says
“For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all” (341)
I believe he is telling us that God made us to love another and also to love all creatures for He loves us, and we should not take advantage of what he gave us, and we should appreciate what all he’s done for us. Regardless what was going on throughout the whole time of the wedding, the wedding guest seems to be only intrigued and entertained by the tale of the mariner. He left the wedding a “sadder and a wiser man,” which means he might’ve learned the lesson from this story (341).