Thursday, May 31, 2007
Coleridge
Of all Coleridge's work presented in our book, the one I enjoyed the most was the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." While it may seem a bit unenlightened to say such a thing, the main reason I enjoyed it was because it the poem rhymed and thus was to me at the very least a little entertaining. As far as allegories go, this one is fairly straightforward in meaning. The ancient Mariner kills a bird that is helping the ship the Mariner is on to find safe passage home. This is a possible allusion to Noah's ark. Also, the act of killing the bird may signify original sin. As Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden for their transgression, the Mariner also suffers for his destruction of what appears to be a divine creature. After the Mariner kills the bird the entire crew (save the Mariner) is struck dead. The Mariner is saved only by God's intervention, yet is still cursed to wander the earth and deliver his story to the person he is directed to. The basic moral being that all creatures great and small were made by God and thus should be treated kindly. Another aspect of this story I found interesting were the famous sayings derived from it. The famous line: "water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink" is from this poem (Coleridge 329). Also, the final stanzas of this poem have the Mariner speaking of "all things both great and small" from which it may be that the title of the book by James Herriot was inspired by this phrase.
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3 comments:
As I read some of these blogs, I think to myself...self, you are probably out of your league! You were able to come away with such an interesting understanding of the text , calling it a straight forward allegory! "The basic moral being that all creatures great and small were made by God and thus should be treated kindly." You even gleaned morals from it! Perhaps more than one? You say "The basic moral being..." Are there other morals that you were able to take from the Ancient Mariner? Very good blog.
-kyle
Jay,
Good focus on this poem, and some interesting observations on different moral and literary elements within it. I am not sure about some of your assertions, though, such as the claimed link between rhyme and entertainment, or the allusions to Adam and Eve or Noah. These allusions might be there, but you don't make a very persuasive case for them here. In the Noah story, for instance, there was a crow and a dove (both quite different from an albatross), but neither was killed and neither was hanging around begging for food. There just seem to be far more differences than similarities here. Try to develop your observations with more evidence and discussion--that may tend to make them more convincing.
Jay,
I too enjoyed "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." It was easy for me to read and understand because of the helping lines in the margins. The underlining message I took from this poem was to be kind to all of God's creatures. I thought it was refreshing to have the helping lines since we had been reading Wordsworth and Blake and I couldn't make sense of any of those poems.
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