The Ways in Which Coleridge and Crabbe Present the Themes of Justice, Isolation, Retribution and the Supernatural in Their Poems

The Ways in Which Coleridge and Crabbe Present the Themes of Justice, Isolation, Retribution and the Supernatural in Their Poems Both the Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner and Peter Grimes appear similar in many ways. Coleridge wrote his poem long before Crabbe wrote Peter Grimes and this could explain some of the similarities. It is almost certain, that to an extent, Crabbe has used some of Coleridge's ideas in T.R.O.T.A.M in his poem Peter Grimes to appeal to the audience he was writing for. T.R.O.T.A.M was based on a dream that Coleridge had. It was written for commercial success and therefore has many religious and spiritual references such as the characters the hermit and the spirits. It also has a moral, as at the time morals were extremely important in life as the belief was that god and the spirits decided your fate. So in order for the poem to be popular, it had to contain a religious element and a moral. Crabbe has also used many religious references in Peter Grimes, for example there is a priest and spirits like in T.R.O.T.A.M. Although this poem was also written for commercial success, the poem was also trying to bring the publics attention to the poor law and how badly treated many young boys were at that time. It, like the novel "Oliver Twist" are both written to inform people about the disadvantages of the poor law. In this way both of the poems have the same purpose as they both contain religious and supernatural references and morals. Both poems tell stories of forgiveness and repent. Although the ancient Mariner knows he has sinned, Peter Grimes does not and thinks he is in the right, which is where the stories di... ... middle of paper ... ... Ne any drop to drink." So the same sort of writing techniques are used in both poems to presents the themes of isolation, injustice, retribution and the supernatural, which is why on first thought, these poems are awfully similar. However when looked at closely, there are many important differences in the styles that both poets write in to present the themes in their own individual way. Both poems are very successful at using the description and imagery to give the feeling of isolation, retribution, injustice and the supernatural. They both tell stories, but again using different styles. T.R.O.T.A.M contains more direct speech than Peter Grimes, which is a narrative poem. These are the main ways in which each poet has produced an original poem on the themes of isolation, retribution, injustice and the supernatural.