Ancient Mariner Quotes

Cursed to Wander the Earth

(An analysis of the messages from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was first published in 1798, it told the story of a sailor who, after capriciously killing an albatross, was forced to hang the sea bird around his neck until he responded to nature with love rather than violence” (Downing). Indeed, this is the central happenings of this specter story. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in this narrative poem, an ancient mariner approaches a young man, who is also about to attend a wedding. The mariner is cursed to wander the face of the earth and tell his ghost story to selected youth, to make his amends for disrespecting

The mariner committed a ghastly crime against nature, when he as a joke took the life of an innocent albatross. Relayed in following, “Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung” (Coleridge 827 lines 141 & 142). The previous quote expresses that as punishment, to pay for the mariner’s senseless crime of shooting the albatross down with a crossbow; the mariner must wear the corpse of the dead sea bird around his neck. The mariner’s crewmates are the ones who force this upon the mariner. They place the bird around the mariner’s neck and do not allow him to remove the rotting sea bird. The mariner’s fellow crewmates are very displeased with the mariner’s actions. The mariner’s crewmates understood that the albatross was a good omen, and was helping them through the doldrums. Ever since the sea bird appeared, and the sailors started treating the bird well, the ice split open and the ship started to sail away from the frigid pole, filled with various glaciers, and inevitable death. The mariner was cursed in the aftermath of murdering the albatross. Importantly, the mariner was not cursed for shooting the bird, but for his disrespect for life. All the albatross did was help the sailors along and hung around the ship, the mariner killed the albatross as a joke. Therefore, the mariner must face some sort of recompense. Further expressed by Marilyn Gaull, contributor to Wordsworth Circle, “A righteous soul will have infinite respect for all forms of life.” Once again, expressing the point that one must respect all life. Thus, understandable that the albatross is a symbol of guilt, originating from the senseless, disrespectful crime of the mariner against