Samuel Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Essay Example for Free

Samuel Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Essay In the history of ancient poets, there emerged great writers who correlated the underpinning lifestyles on social life they believed in. Merited information on their writing remains tangible and historical based to disseminate the realities of many beliefs and conducts made in different scenarios people found themselves in. ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is one of the longest poems in writing history written by Samuel Coleridge in 1798 (Rubasky, 1). Ideas of sin, penance, and redemption are denotable from this poem in relation to the ancient approaches of acts of sin, the encountering of the sinners, and the relatable redemption after several befalling of scenarios as discussed in this study. Intensity and consequences of the victim are elaborative in this study to bring light on the reality of religion and traditional perspectives of this ancient community. People may enter into an erroneous situation just after a prolonged happiness whereby things seemed to run seamlessly. A situation where people are undergoing joy of perfection due to past or current situation does not sanctify the occasion as repel from bad moments occurring. As Mariner interrupts the wedding progression, the commencement of his story seams enticing as stated by Coleridge, â€Å"The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: He cannot choose but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, The bright-eyed Mariner† (20). Human beings have a tendency of being carried away by merry moments, which leads to misconception due to filled anxiety. It is therefore upon this anxiety where people involve themselves in overdoing things and make them go astray. As the Couch writes on Coleridge’s argument, everything for the sailing journey seemed good until the ship crossed the line (30). Storm-blast reigned in tyrannous nature and immense strength, hitting the ship, and changing its sail-way to South Pole. Forced to icy land with fearful sounds and no sign of living things, Albatross sea-bird, indentified as a bird of good omen; ‘Christian soul’ came along and was served hospitably (75). Due to repeated guidance and reliance of food and play to the sailors, the ancient mariner mistook and shot the bird to death. Fellow shipmates cried out, aroused by the act considered taboo, the mariner sinned, he did not solve the stormy issue but instead the wind blew continuously. Until the ceasing of mis t and the rise of glorious sun, the shipmates accomplice the crime of killing an innocent, bird of good luck. Regarding this reality, people used assumptions and diverse views on sin commitment and could not indentify the exact act that could predominately refer to sin. Some seemed to honor their Supreme God as they viewed the bird as an amicable messenger of Him yet failed on supporting the mariner’s killing of Albatross. Numerous religious artifacts have proved that when people involve themselves in wrongdoing, the vengeful moment has to follow. It is a factual ideology that started in ancient days whereby people are bound by ethical fundamentals, which govern the code of conduct in everyday life. Good things are relatable to not sinful while bad or harmful things, physically and emotionally, are relatable to sinning. Moreover, as LibriVox argues, the belief traces back to the mariners time whereby after committing sin, one was applicable to a kind of penance of religious punishment to settle the bad omen brought to the community. For instance, the killing of Albatross brought stiff detrimental views to the shipmates by associating the challenges they faced with the killing. Appalling things revolved around their journey at the point of ‘slimy sea’ as the sailor’s lack of a single drop to drink and the occurrence of dancing death-fires at nights which camouflaged in different colors. Scary nightmares and follow up of evil spirits from land to the snowy sea frightened the shipmates that led to disillusioned actions of the accompaniments of the ancient mariner. They hanged dead Albatross on his neck in the verge of easing and appealing the worsening spirits activities against their wellbeing. As Coleridge states, â€Å"Instead of the cross, the Albatross, About my neck was hung† (140). Punishment intensity climaxed when Spectre-Woman appeared with barking and dreadful sounds and caused an additional fear to the shipmates. There was Albatross killing, and so was the punishment inevitable. She was capable of thickening human blood with cold, an act she practiced to the other men who sailed with the ancient mariner. It is clear from the poet’s elaboration that killing the man who killed Albatross would not be as severe to his punishment as killing the men he sailed with and continue sailing alone in the midst of snowy sea. Mariner’s shipmates were killed in a fast and remorseful manner whereby they dropped one after the other, dead. In the assurance of maximum torment to the mariner, every man’s soul was identifiable as they crossed his face like the whizz of his crossbow shot. Penance defined the nature of correcting the supernatural intrusions since the devilish signs on scary scenarios and human killing implicated vengefulness . However, it is denotable from the poem that praying, communicating to God, would definitely give a saving solution from the erroneous moment the sinful people go through despite that fact that the mariner was unable to utter prayers substantively due to the scenario inflicted upon him. Human beliefs tend to involve powerful meanings and associate tremendous results, especially when one relies on their spell capabilities. Beliefs make people position their minds in a hopeful manner through imagination and faith in the verge of seeking substantive help in difficult situations. The deliverance point is referred to as redemption, which comes after great commitment on the visionary worship to one’s supreme being of believing. The Mariner’s consistence in praying to the Supreme God, he believes in, emerges vital towards his safety sailing back to his native country. The spell of the disillusioned sailing destiny began to loosen up when Albatross’ body fell from his neck to the water, sinking like a lead metal. His praising was through ‘Mary Queen’ as he claimed to have sent him gentle sleep from heaven (295). To his amazement, the ancient mariner woke up just to realize it was raining. Refreshment to his body and the termination of his thirst was grateful. Different voices argue that the man had his penance and salvation moment reached. Caring spirit, which had sent a loving bird to the man, the man who killed it, sailed the ship without winds to the man’s native country. Total redemption had been achieved through penance and seeking of forgiveness. Work Cited Coleridge, Samuel. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. New York: D. Appleton. 1798. Print. Couch, Quiller. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 1772–1834: 549. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 1919. Web. 6 February 2013. LibriVox. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). 2012. Web. 6 February 2013. Rubasky, Elizabeth. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’: Coleridge’s Multiple Models of Interpretation. New York: The Coleridge Bulletin. 2004. Print.