When I studied the Ancient Mariner for my A-Levels, it was as part of a unit on Gothic literature, but even so the message of “be kind to all living things” is an obvious message to take from the poem and links into ideas of environmental consciousness and the importance of nature.
Environmental consciousness in the poem does, however, go further than the obvious shock of the murder of the albatross. Our discussion about the first scene in class today made me consider the contrast between the wedding and the outside and the guest and Mariner’s battle over which is most important. Inside, there are people and “din”, it is a situation constructed by humans with artificial finery, but instead, the Mariner forces the wedding guest to remain outside, seated on a natural stone as he listens to a tale that warns him to respect nature, or at least living things. Looked at in this way, the poem can be seen to encourage the idea of separating oneself from the crowds and cities that Coleridge and Wordsworth both criticised in other poems we have read and learning to appreciate nature.
It seems to me that there is another domain featured in the poem in addition to the "inside" realm of man where the wedding is taking place and the "outside" realm around it where the mariner tells his tale. The space outside the church seems to be a nature of reality but the nature of the sea where the Mariner travel seems like another domain altogether. It is almost as if the Mariner traveled through a portal into a supernatural world where nature is wild and untamed. When the Mariner departs from land he passes the landmarks of the harbor, the kirk, the hill, and the light-house top and when he returns he passes the exact same structures despite the fact that he has been completely lost and turned around.
ReplyDeleteI think there are definitely different contrasting "realms" or views being portrayed in this poem. As we discussed in class, I think Coleridge is trying to tell us how we are supposed to read poetry - with our minds open like a child. We shouldn't just read it, we should experience it and commit ourselves to it and let it affect us. The wedding guest let the poem change him; he became "sadder and wiser." He turned away from the wedding, as if after listening to the poem he was forced to make a choice between two things, the inside and outside, that he hadn't even thought of as a choice before.
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