The Rime of the Ancient Mariner-Context

I was thinking about the importance of context in understanding the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and I became a little bit stuck trying to think of contexts to do with the poem. I have looked at Coleridge himself; How Life in Death is linked to aloneless and isolation and that the poem can be read as a personal allegory of his experiences (isolation, guilt, creative impotence) then thought about how imagery like the albatross is linked to this context with the quote "killed the bird/that made the breeze to blow" associated with Coleridge destroying his own genius...The other context I can think of would be the ballad form and why that was used by the Romantic poets.

Can anyone think of any other important context points?

Reply 1

merzpop

If you are doing AQA A2, Drama focuses on context more (A05) and Poetry focuses on Interpretations (One Life, moral guidance, the fall of man etc), and how language form and structure develop the poem (AO3+4)

so context- interpretation

One Life- The romantic notion that one should respect nature, that nature has a cyclical structure, if you harm it, it will harm you back. The structure of the poem exhibits this it is cyclical, it returns to the beginning, the wedding.

God in Nature- i.e "nor dim ne red like god's own head the glorious sun uprist"

The allegor of the albatross could be representative of crucifiction and christs sacrifice- "instead of the cross, the albatross about my neck was hung" because the mariner kills the Albatross it leads to a greater understanding and greater faith.

Coleridge is trying to present nature in many ways, a teacher and moral guide

nature=admiration, wonder, overpowering "the ice was here, the ice was there etc."

last two stanzas of the poem "he prayeth best who loveth best.../... loveth all" lots of interpretations moral christian one life

The poem could be about the perils of exploration, this was occuring at the time.

A comment on Industrialisation, refs to the sun as "hot" " "copper" "our throats were choked with soot"

the romantic hero.

Moon- illusion and imagination
Sun establishes a world of fact.

The romantics felt that the imagination was just as vital as fact, and in the poem we see different occurences in the presence of the two. Coleridge could be making a comment on how we should percieve the world.

Gothic Interpretation- "charnel crust" (part two- "purple" "green" elements of violence)

A christian Allegory SIN, REPENATNCE, SALVATION

UM thats all i can think about, check out Joseph Campell he talks about the isolation of man then his return to civilisation, and about the many roles of the mariner. pm me if you want to know any more.

hope that was useful

Lucy
xx :-)

Reply 2

merzpop