The Rime of the Ancient Mariner pg. 63

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge tells the story of a sailor and his journey through the Pacific Ocean and his troubles during the adventure. It provides us with the concept of having an albatross around one’s neck. The sailor kills the albatross that he believes is bringing the fog while they are sailing, when in fact it was bringing them wind. As a punishment to remind him of his wrongdoing he says that, “Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung” (67). With the wind no longer moving the ship, the crew of the ship beings to starve and the albatross is hung around the Anceint Mariner’s neck to remind him that he is responsible for the death of his crew and he is punished by watching them die when he is forced to stay alive.

            This poem is important because it provides a moral and an important idiom for the English language. This poem provides a moral to not kill innocent creatures and to love all of God’s creations, when Coleridge said, “he prayeth best, who loveth best / All things both great and small; / For the dear God who loveth us, / He made and loveth all” (81). In this Poem Coleridge provides us with a moral to the tale of the Ancient Mariner that we can all learn from. He provides the idiom of the albatross that is still prevalent in literature and popular culture today in novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Bastille’s song “Weight of Living, Pt I”. Because Coleridge provided a story that is still deemed important today in our popular culture and literature and because the moral of his story is still relevant in our society “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is an important poem.