THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

ABOUT THE POEM...

• Highly Symbolic
• Sea voyage = Life
• Original Sin = killing of the Albatross
• Mariner's act is a CRIME against GOD and nature
• The true path to GOD is through respecting nature

THE STRUCTURE OF THE POEM

• English Ballad
• Stanzas= "quartain"
• Iambs
• Elements of Romanticism
• Meaning different by Form

MAJOR THEMES

• The Natural World: The Physical
• The Spiritual World: The Metaphysical
• Liminality
• Religion and the Act of Storytelling
• Imprisonment and retribution

SYMBOLS

• ship: human soul. Eyes: magnetic power
• Travel: progression from sin to redemption
• Sea: human condition. -Sun: reason. -moon: immagination
• Crew: human kind. -albatros: armony of creation. Wind: energy
• Ice: death. Mist: doubt. Drought: punishment.

TEXT ANALYSIS

• Glittering eye : connected with the act of storytelling
• The ancient mariner is condamned to perpetually relive the story of his Life
• The natural world is deeply connected with the spiritual world

TEXT ANALYSIS

• Responsability of mariner's act
• Liminality
• Sin makes water undrinkable

TEXT ANALYSIS

• Theme of imprisonment: his immortal body is his prison
• Albatros = Christ
• Redemption = acts of atonement