Rhyming Mariners

“Forthwith this frame of mine was wrench’d

With a woeful agony,

Which forced me to begin my tale;

And then it left me free.

Since then, at an uncertain hour,

That agony returns;

And till my ghastly tale is told,

This heart within me burns.”

At the end of “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the mariner mentions that he must travel the land and tell his tale.

I don’t know if Coleridge was religious or not, but his poem seems to hold quite a few religious themes, including wearing a cross around one's neck and the idea of penance, among other things.  The curses that are placed on the mariner all seem to be a form a penance for him, in order to pay for his “sins.”

The mariner is cursed and must share his story, but while he confessed this to the wedding guest he adds, “He prayeth well, who loveth well/Both man and bird and beast.” Though the mariner did not outwardly express any remorse over killing the albatross immediately after it happened, the message he is sending is to love all things, including albatrosses. I imagine the mariner feels that he is only cursed, this last time and previously, because he did kill the albatross.

I think his story-telling is also a way of warning people, “this is what you should NOT do.” That’s a very common way of warding people from various activities; it’s why we have the Deterrence Theory. It is very much a way to say, “I did this and look what I have to do to pay for it, do you want to face that?” I think it would be very interesting to see how Coleridge intended that passage to be understood.