Coleridge's Ancient mariner
well heres another thread about coleridge's poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner, this is my interpretation of the poem, of which my english teacher doesnt support because i thinkl that it is a dark poem, not a poem about the consecquences of killing a bird :P (the rest may be slightly repeatitive as it was saved from another post :P) please tell me your interpretation of the poem, and tell me if you disagree cuz i need to change it a bit before the HSC thanks
but here is the my one teacher disagrees with me the most, the good ol' Ancient Mariner. according to my teacher the purpose of the poem is a demonstration of what happens when you kill 'gods creatures' (and i go to a public school!!!)
but in a complete contrast of understanding and beliefs, i believe that the poem isn't postitive like my teacher thinks, but a total opitamy, the complete opposite, i believe that this poem is negitive, demonstrating the destructiveness of the human culture, the poem as a whole is negitive, Life -In-Death, and Lady Death gambling for the lives of the crew is a prefect example of this, the dominators determing the fate of the 'lesser' mortals, (fairly ironic to today really).
the main theme in this peom i believe is the negitivity of the human culture ands the destructiveness of the human ideal, NOT the consequences of shooting an albotross, or some slackass not navigating properly. but the main ideal that sets this poem down is the sudden need to include god into the poem, from what i believe it is a sudden reminder to coleridge himself that the dominators (i.e. church/god etc) must be followed, and hence the sudden religious theme that to me slows down the whole poem, from as a demonstration of the negitivity of human culture and the consequences, to respecting all gods creatures, to me why would coleridge set up a poem to demonstrate negitivity, to suddenly lose momentum, and add god to the scene, if he wanted to demonstreate the consequences of god, why didnt he start it positivily??????
another thing i think that the mariner is the representative (or 'host'/key character/muse) that coleriodge uses as a demonstration of these negitive feelings, otherwise why is the mariner stopping people and telling him of his curse, and the negitivity of the human psyche ( thats the word i needed!!)
he is only a muse who serves as a sole purpose to act as a warning as a prevention of destruction to humanity. as he is only telling the guest a story of his life, and this, with the aspects of Life-in-Death, the godly eel bit, and a few others. the poem as a whole is a warning to humanity, about self destruction, not 'to stop shooting pretty little birdies'
please tell me your opinion of my interpretation of any ideas you's have that can help me get this right
Thanks Scruffy
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, for Haffas class...
I am not very into poems mainly because i think i am to daft to understand the greater meaning in the lesser amount of words, however, Coleridge has been one of the easiest poets for me to understand, he does usual some flowery visuals but for the most part I had a pretty easy go at understanding what he was talking about. I could be wrong however so please let me know if I am anywhere close to what he was trying to get at. . This is my interpretation of a portion of his The Rime of the Ancient Mariner... And its for my English class..
The poem i chose was The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge, to me the tragic tail depicting a mistaken mariner depicts a long repeated tail. The section i choose to focus on in this poem was the section the painted the "other ship" approaching. This second ship come to "rescue" the parched crew did not appear to me as an actual ship but as a mirage possibly of a ship and foreshadowing of what was to come for that hopeless ship full of men. In the stanza on page 911, the mariner cries, " Heaven's Mother send us grace!", the entire crew is desperate for some reprieve, it is ironic that it would be sent so fast, another reason why I disbelieve the ship being a reality. What might have been their salvation transforms into their despair-
"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? Is Death that woman's mate? As often expressed, death and turmoil and the names of ships are usually named after women, it is fitting that the Mariners vision of death is lead and depicted by a women image. This passage seems to be the point in which the Mariner is finding out that he will not get out of suffering so easily. It is beginning to sink in (no pun intended) that he is destined to roam the seas forever suffering for his mistaken killing. The Mariner is suffering enough but it perpetually reminded of his bad deed by the way the rest of the "crew" is depicted, the constant reminder that they are all dead, and the repeated mentioning of the innocently killed albatross.
Coleridge "Ancient Mariner" for Hoffa's Class@MPC
Since I have travelled almost the world around, I followed Coleridge's poem, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, with excitement because it did arouse my emotions when I read this poem in high school. As I remembered it I also remembered clearly the North Pole and in particular the Albatross for which I had great sympathy when I saw one for the first time. The Albatross in my lifetime and probably long before was very much maligned. As I understand the use of albatross as a metaphor came from a poem by Charles Baudelaire. It means that someone with a burden or obstacle in their life is said to "have an albatross around their neck." This was the punishment given to the mariner who killed the albatross. In part due to the poem, there is a widespread myth among sailors, which my husband is one, that to shoot or harm an albatross believe it to be disastrous just as the poem which tells the story of an Ancient Mariner.
On our trip to the South Pole, we encountered an albatross which was a huge bird which acted as our mascot as our captain weaved our ship in-between icebergs. It was web-footed and had long slender wings. The guide on our trip told us a little of the history of the bird. He explained that they nested on certain islands where they would choose a mate by a process of ritual dances. Sometimes the searching for a mate took up to a year, but when they mated, it was for life. The albatross would then go to sea and stay sometimes as long as fourteen years. My sadness when I saw the albatross was the fact of his long absence from his mate. Then when I read the poem and found out that the mariner had killed the albatross it saddened me as well.
My thesis is that Coleridge wrote these poems with specific thoughts in mind showing the relationship between one's mind and nature. Just as I, when reading the Ancient Mariners story not only brought to my mind, the fury of the sea, the icebergs, and the wind, the danger which I encompassed in reality and relived again in the poem. For example, Coleridge wrote "And now the Storm-blast came, and he was tyrannous and strong: He struck with o'ertaking wings, And chased us south along." "And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald." The ice was here, the ice was there, the ice was all around: It cracked and growled and roared and howled, like noises in a swound. "At length did cross an Albatross, Through the fog it came; As if it had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God's name." "God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus! "Why look'st thou so? -- With the cross-bow I shot the Albatross!"
Here then are just a few verses which show an injustice to nature without considering the bird or the Mariner's own actions. Throughout the poem, the Mariner carried with him the results of his crime -- he had the albatross around his neck. In the final stanzas he shares the lesson he has learned. "Farewell, farewell! but this I tell To thee thou Wedding-Guest! He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast---For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all."
