A symbolic reading of the mariner’s voyage in the rime of the ancient mariner

Abstract AR

The Ancient Mariner is unlike other conventional ballads because its focus is not an event but rather the symbolism that derives from an event.

It describes a voyage into the interior spaces of the poetic self, whose potentialities are limitless.

The poetic self emerges after the Mariner undergoes a process of transformation.

The tension in the poem exists between the familiar self and the imaginative, creative self.

Coleridge uses various images that correspond to the purpose of the voyage.

The poet suffers from a deep spiritual crisis that demands the use of a symbolic language.

The use of such language, in turn, requires a symbolic reading of the poem to capture the significance of its events.

Otherwise, important events simply appear to be strange, inconsistent, or incoherent.

The symbols that are used in the poem are both traditional and personal, in the sense of being unique to Coleridge.

Despite the range of images and symbols that are used in the poem, they are merged into a consistent whole.