Rime Of The Ancient Mariner Analysis

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"Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth defines his principle object of his collection of poems, Lyrical Ballads, as "primary laws of nature…from common life…whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way" (434). Lyrical Ballads contains a central moral in every poem, which is to better understand nature and how it can better men as individuals. While originally a part of the collection, Wordsworth eventually excluded the work of his partner, Samuel Coleridge, on the grounds of being too disturbing and unusual. Despite being described in an "unusual way", Coleridge 's poem emphasizes the consequences of recklessly disturbing nature, thus making it a natural fit in the collection of poems.
Wordsworth begins the collection 's preface by giving alternate definitions of what poetry is. He initially gives a vague definition, the most applicable one, saying that poetry is a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (435). Using as basic a definition as this, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" fits the mold. The speaker of the poem, the mariner, in the opening stanzas, stops a guest about to attend a wedding in order to tell him a story, putting the wedding guest in a trance. "He holds him with thy glittering eye - the wedding guest stood still, and listens like a three years child: The Mariner hath his will" (635). The glittering eye of the mariner is holding the guest 's attention, giving over his will. It is later

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