The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner Analysis

The exert presented is from The Rime of The Ancient Mariner written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the late 1700’s. It is vastly considered to be a milestone in the beginning of British Romantic literature. It is written in lyrical ballad verses and its meter is characterized by iamb, characterized by an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one, common in English literature.
Below the church, below the hill
Bellow the light-house top There are different themes according to one’s interpretation of the text. The one which pops out the most would be Isolation. After the long and hardous trip, it can certainly be proposed that the return to society would be difficult. It comes across to the reader that the most time he spends with one would be with a hermit. An example of isolation as depicted on the text would be:
I closed my lids, and kept them close,
Till the balls like pulses beat;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.
This quote represents the loneliness the mariner feels in his semi-dead state, while the ones around him are gone. The closing of the lids, and wanting to keep them closed just further emphasises this point, leading for the readers to believe that he would rather be dead. The author steers the readers in different directions and it can be accordingly interpreted on what he is referring to in the work. The one which most stands out to me would be the religious and the