Rime of an Ancient Mariner Issues - Book Report/Review Example

Alone on the Wide Wide Sea An Analysis of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner 'Rime of an Ancient Mariner' is primarily a work of imagination. For Lamb 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is less 'a fantastical imagination and a drowsie dreame' than 'a continued allegory and a darke conceit'. (Lucas 191) The poem was close to Coleridge's heart and meant a lot for him, which is attested by the many times he went back to the poem for revision and for the glosses that he subsequently attached to it till the very last days of his life. Although the poem has a noted allegorical significance and has an overt morality, which although debated by some to be pedestrian, elementary and at times disturbing and morbid; the chief source of the perpetual attraction of the poem is its imaginative force - the imagination, which according to many critics, including C.M. Bowra, is the central characteristic of romantic poetry. Romanticism is difficult term to define, ostensibly because it is anachronistic to a great extent. The term was used by later critics to define a poetic movement in European, and in particular English and French, literature between the late eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century, which fore grounded a kind of profound subjectivity and lyricism. It drew much of its significance from its contrast to the neo-classical trends of poetry of the previous age. Aesthetically, the term is far from monolithic and includes so many facets and counter influences that this categorization itself can be highly questionable. There appears, for example, more closeness between the art of Byron and Pope than say, Wordsworth. However, they are both categorized as Romantics, albeit belonging to two different generations. Therefore, it is imperative that there is something deeper than mere stylistic and thematic similarities that bring poets as diverse as Blake and Byron together. We have to first find out what it means to be a Romantic at an extremely fundamental level before getting into any kind of contextual territory within which to place an early Romantic like Coleridge, and his single most representative poem 'The Rime of an Ancient Mariner'. Early Romanticism: Coleridge in Context Romanticism, as we have already stated, is a problematic term. However, one thing one which most critics agree regarding Romanticism is that it is as much of an aesthetic as a political movement against the kind of social and artistic practices of the previous age. Therefore, for many critics Romanticism is best understood only in response to the developing philosophical trends that were current in the neoclassical with its emphasis on individual and social enlightenment through a propagation of 'positive knowledge' that included rigorous training in science and empirical knowledge. This was, in turn, was considered to be a cultivation of the intellect and the attainment of a perceived 'maturity' of the mind, which would contribute to the development of the 'civil society'. If perceived within these contexts, Romanticism appears to be as much of a mode of social dissent as well as a philosophical counter-force. All critics, to varying extents, decline to dissociate Romanticism with the political scenario of Europe prevalent at the time. The new forces of industrialization that challenged the previous agrarian structure leading to a change in the socio-economic structure also played an important role in the development of Romanticism. However, if there is one event that played an important role in the development of this new philosophical outlook, it was the French Revolution. The ideas of democracy brought in a new dream in the power of the people, and that dream went a long way in forcing people to look at humankind in general with a changed perception, a perception that foregrounded man's communion with his inner self. French Revolution, particularly for the first generation of Romantic poets, ushered in a new sense of possibilities and freedom, and the freedom is well expressed in the aspirations and the optimism of man's communion with society and nature. However, this optimism that is appropriated at an individual level as direct fallout of the French Revolution has a philosophical history, and is a part of a natural philosophical development. M.H. Abrams, in 'Natural Supernaturalism' outlines this development in detail. The entire history of the development of human consciousness is integrally related to a circular structure that involves a primary dissociation between human consciousness and nature. Through various epochs mankind moves towards a final union between these two faculties - it is within this trope of union that the Romantic imagination is located. Man's search of oneness with a perceived higher power with whom it has been dissociated is the grounding principle of Romanticism. Imagination, which is the most characteristic feature of Romanticism, has to be placed in this philosophical context. Imagination, for most Romantics is not an end in itself but a means towards an end - the end of oneness with the eternal, the mode through which the transience of human and temporal existence is brought in communion with the eternal spirit. The problem for most Romantics, though, was that they did not find a ready model from within which this communion is to be perpetrated. Thus, most Romantic poets had to search for an alternative system. It is this search for a system, a system drastically different from the enlightenment glorification of the intellectual self, which brings all Romantic poets together. They took different forms in different poets: for Wordsworth it was in the sublime aspect of nature, for Keats it was a perceived Hellenism, and for Coleridge an immersion in the subterranean territory of the human conscious - an exploration of the darker recesses of the human psyche with fear, anxiety, loneliness, despair and moral agony. 'The Rime of an Ancient Mariner' is a Romantic poem in purely this aspect: it is a supreme exercise in the power of imagination for Coleridge to reach this alternative system, a system that is in direct opposition to the enlightenment celebration of the human intellect and consciousness. The role of Dream in the Rime of an Ancient Mariner' Dream plays a very important role in the life of Coleridge. Rime of an Ancient Mariner ultimately is a dream, a dream of the most horrible kind. For Coleridge, as is clear in a number of his memoirs, letters and correspondences, dreams play an extremely important role. For him, at least, it was as real, if not more, than reality itself. Sleep, for Coleridge, was nothing if not without dreams. The question of dream is also integrally connected to the loneliness that is such a pervading theme in the poem. The most significant and disturbing aspect of the Rime is the loneliness, which according to some critics, is better defined by 'aloneness' - that sensation of absolute despair where even the final beneficial aspect of the divine presence is left wide open to suspicion and questioning. Loneliness comes across clearly in a number of lines in the poems: Alone, alone, all, all, alone Alone on the wide wide sea! And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony. The loneliness is emphasized by the multiplicity of presence that is put forward in the other lines: The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I. Even in the final lines, this loneliness is highlighted: O Wedding Guest! This soul hath been Alone on a wide-wide sea: So lonely 'twas, that God himself Scarce seemed there to be Even when it is not directly stated, loneliness acts as an implicit trope throughout the poem at various points: like the sound of the 'lonely flute', and the 'spirit from the south pole' is a lonesome spirit. The ominous and potent image of the 'Life-in-Death' is to be understood in this trope of homecoming in the poem. 'Life-and-Death' is emblematic of the intense remorse and despair, and an intense loneliness. The following section of the poem personifies Life-in-Death: Her lips were red, her looks were free Her locks were yellow as gold: Her skin was as white as loprosy, This Night-mare, Life-In-Death was she. Who thicks man's blood with cold. This pervading presence of loneliness is also connected to the image of homecoming. The long stay in Malta was a period of great remorse for Coleridge, and he was aware of the mixed feelings that a sailor experienced while seeing the shores of his homeland after a long voyage. This feeling of homesickness is integrally connected to the texture of the poem itself: Oh! Dream of joy! is this indeed The light-house top I see Is this the hill Is this the kirk Is this mine own countree The Morality of Rime One of the most debatable issues of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the morality as represented in the poem. It is important to consider this morality as it is a major part of Coleridge's tragic vision of life. The killing of the albatross is the central event of the poem that in turn sets into motion a number of other acts that are extremely ghastly and unearthly. However, before we get into a discussion about the image of the albatross, we have to consider the importance of this symbol. The albatross was chosen by Coleridge after long deliberation. Even after the entire poem was planned, Coleridge, according to Wordsworth's account of the incident, was still in search of a symbol that would all the discordant but related themes of the poem together. It was largely through a conference between the two, presumably during one of the long walks in Grassmere, stumbled upon the symbol of the albatross, which successfully represented a number of associations that were close to the poem's theme. It would fit naturally into a voyage to Antarctic regions, sailors are superstitious about birds and indeed have special superstitions about the albatross; and it is also conducive to the rhyme scheme that Coleridge must have had in mind by then. On a more specific level: the albatross suited Coleridge's poetic vision well: it was a rare species of bird with exceptional size, solitary, haunting a limited and an evocative zone, harmless and according to most accounts a beneficent specie. For Coleridge, it was the ideal symbol to hold the diverse but related aspects of the poem together, giving it a central moral dimension. The moral vision is in turn, integrally connected to the tragic vision represented in the poem. The narrator in the poem is completely unaware of the events that the killing of the albatross would initiate. He could have resisted from shooting the arrow: it was not necessary from any point of view. However, the point remains that he shot the arrow, killing the friendly bird and initiating a group of actions and implications for which he is directly responsible, but of which he had no inkling. Thus the irony of the situation comes from the fact that the true implication of an event, usually tragic, comes at a time when the act has been perpetrated. It is this irony that is represented by the tragic vision of the poem. The endearing charm of the poem, however, comes not from its morality or its exploration of the psychoanalytic depths of the human consciousness, but from its basic human element, which was attested by readers dating back to Charles Lamb to some of the more recent critics. The specific magic of the 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is that it does not work on the mind alone. In fact the 'mental afterthoughts are of little use in explaining, least of all explaining away, the profound spiritual and emotional effect of this poem'. (Whalley 33) References: Lucas, E.V. ed. Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb. London: 1935. Whalley, George. 'The Mariner and the Albatross'. K. Coburn, ed., Coleridge: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1967) Read More