Study Questions p 252 What kind of poem is The Rime of the Ancient mariner It is a mixture of Gothic romance travel literature which supplies the exotic and traditional ballad It is a joint poetic work typical of Lyrical Ballads because the story was originally planned as a ID: 586771
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Slide1
Coleridge
Study Questions p. 252Slide2
What kind of poem is
‘The Rime of the Ancient mariner’
?
It is a mixture of Gothic romance, travel literature (which supplies the exotic) and traditional ballad. It is a joint poetic work typical of ‘Lyrical Ballads’ because the story was originally planned as a collaboration between Coleridge and Wordsworth, who in fact suggested some episodes (like the killing of the albatross and the dead men sailing the ship).
List the elements that reveal the presence of the supernatural and magic in
‘The Rime’
?
The figure of the old mariner, who comes from nowhere and has a hypnotic power ;
The Albatross, which seems to be endowed with supernatural powers;
The unearthly creatures present in the poem;
The ship driven by mysterious forces.Slide3
What are the religious and the artistic readings of the poem?
According to the religious reading of ‘
The Rime’
the shooting of the albatross is seen as a sort of sin against nature and therefore against God. God’s punishment for the killing of the albatross, considered a violence of the laws of nature, subsides only when the Mariner blesses the water snakes that crawl around the ship.
According to the artistic reading of the poem the Mariner is an artist who goes through painful and extraordinary experiences in his search for truth and knowledge and is finally saved by the power of imagination. Here again his quest will end only when he is able to see beauty in the water snakes.