The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

The t solelyy Of The Ancient yapSamuel Taylor Coleridges The hoarfrost of the Ancient Mariner is said to be his attempt to bring occult arts terrors to a naturalistic setting. Some critics certainise argued that the righteous truths of the verse be not nevertheless unintelligible and overly chimerical. scarcely for another(prenominal) critics, this incoherentity is what eliminates the verse its greatest quality. In analyzing and critiquing Coleridges metrical composition, an in depth abstract of the irrational is needed. This irrationality is not Coleridges failure to explain the supernatural yet actually an evidence of its Christian moral code and that the poems irrationality emerges because of Coleridges home(a) conflict with his con random variable from Unitarianism to the Angli scum bagism religion. This hermeneutic must be in head when attempting to interpret Coleridges poem.Before we can look at modern critics such as Christopher Stokes, J Robert Barth, conjuration T Netland, and direct Jerome J. McGann, we must premier look at how earlier critics have looked at Coleridges work finished a Christian eyes. The article Coleridge And The Luminous Gloom An Analysis Of The exemplary Language In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Elliott B. Gose, Jr. examines the poem by means of with(predicate) a Christian perspective simply because Gose believes the poem is fill up with Christian trappings (239). Gose shows how symbols carry a Christian political orientation and spends colossal time on examining how the sun (whether glorious or red) represents God small-arm the other forces in the poem represent the forces of nature. In the end, Gose claims that nature is grade to God and that the Mariners pilgrimage does not deal with a physical voyage plainly it represents a Romantic urge to search the eternal disposition and the temporal emotions (244). precisely through egress the article, Gose fails to fully explain the other q uaint fractions in Coleridges poem. For instance, he brings up life-in-death, who wins the Mariner in a gamble, alone then dismisses her by stating how she is obviously outside the Christian hierarchy and is connected with a whole strand of non-Christian figures, incidents, and images in the poem (242). He interprets this from the cover explanation given from the culture and continues with the rest of the poem still in Christian ideological framework. More modern critics will point out how though much of the poem chit-chatms to use Christian terms, the more antic elements and the ambiguous expatiate take in distance between familiar and foreign which gave trouble to m some(prenominal) earlier Christian critical readings of Coleridges text.Goses confusion with the gloss and its obscure Christian emphasis can be explained in construe And Resistance The Hermeneutic Subtext Of The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by John T Netland. He suggests that the poem displays an incongruous mixture of pagan and Christian symbols (38) and examines the use of the gloss as a hermeneutic. Although the gloss-writing editor is responding to the authoritative poem and seeks to interpret it for a modern audience, the editor marginalizes the Mariners screws and emphasizes the Christian overtones of the poem. Netland states the gloss and the poem itself create a unique tension between contrasting unearthly imaginations (41). One is a world of categorized and rational set of apparitional experiences (inferred from gloss) while the other a spectral, mystical, irrational religious sublimity (from the poem). Netland states that Coleridge may have gotten his idea from Bibles at that time with their gloss notes that gave a clearer interpretation of the scriptural text. This is very similar to Jerome J. McGanns examinations in his brilliant article, The Meaning Of The Ancient Mariner, where McGann in brief details the poems history from its initial criticism to Coleridges embrac ing of Christian political theory to his high Critical analytics of the re-interpretative process of the Bible to Coleridges attempt in mimicking this form hermeneutic upon his have work. McGann points to the fact that Coleridges poem was archetypely a literary ballad among all the other lyrical ballads found Wordsworths printed work, Lyrical Ballads. With the gage edition, and with Wordworths concerns, Coleridge made alterations to make the poem less a literary ballad and more a lyrical ballad. Coleridge may have realized what he was doing was similar to what occurred in Biblical narratives. Coleridge had argued in length on issues of Higher Criticism that Scriptures were not an unmediated and fixed biblical text but an evolved and continuously evolving set of records which include the Churchs later glosses on and interpretations of the earlier documents (47). McGann unusually suggests that Coleridges revised version of his poem shows tetrad clear layers of development (a ) an authorized mariners tale (b) the ballad narrative of that story (c) the editorial gloss added when the ballad was, we are to suppose, first printed and (d) Coleridges own point of view on his invented materials (50). The polish shows Coleridges own theory of religious and exemplary interpretation. McGann believes that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is Coleridges imitation of a culturally redacted literary work (51).But overture back to Netlands article, the gloss, he believes, becomes an inadequate hermeneutic for analyzing the poem. Netland suggests that the gloss is inadequate as a hermeneutic underworldce the editor reduces the Mariners spiritual journey, actions, and sufferings into a straight-forward neat fleck to emphasize Christian redemption. Netland states that the Marinerhas experienced something of the religious sublime (whether real or delusive), and his compulsive retellings of his story point to the inexplicable profundity of his experience (51). The writer of the gloss fails to determine this and the gloss represses the Mariners heightened religious experience. Netland suggests that we instead respond like the stunned Wedding Guest which is far more unchanging to Coleridgean hermeneutics when analyzing the journey of the Mariner.But can the gloss be ignore? McGann disagrees and states that the changes (as wellhead as the addition of the gloss) from 1798 to 1817 show an important story in Coleridges development of the purposes of his poem. Many believed that these changes were a reactionary shinement in which a daring and radical poem is transformed into a relatively reclaim work of Christian symbolism (42) when Coleridge retreated from his radical views to his later Christian ideology. McGann, in his article, dives deeply into Coleridges understanding of the Higher Critical analysis of the Christian Bible to show Coleridges Hermeneutic Model of his poem originating from his ideas of the process of the Bibles creation. Coleridge aphorism how Gods Word was expressed and later reexpressed through commentary, gloss, and interpretation by circumstance people at different times according to their differing lights (43). Coleridges poem is presented as just this type of reinterpreted text retaining its own ideological coherence even through the fragmentation from reinterpretation. McGann states that the poem shows Coleridges process of textual evolution and the symbolic meaning of that process is a Christian redemptive one.We can see how the very nature of religion affected Coleridge in his earlier 1798 version and his later 1817 version (with gloss) and can conclude that the poet himself and his faith must be examined. J. Robert Barths book, Romanticism and Transcendence Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious Imagination, delves deeply into Coleridges theories, struggles, and faith. Although, he spends the first four chapter exploring Wordsworths works and how it practices Coleridges theories of imagination, he examines closely the nature of religion in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in chapter 6. Although Coleridge had theological speculations, he was a realistic Christian (89). Coleridge believed in living out the practical aspects of his faith. Barth does not give a complete examination of Coleridges poem, but hones in to what he believes gives capacity and beauty to Coleridges poetry. The notion of polarity (a balance or reconciliation of opposites (6)) is of import to Coleridges theories of imagination. Opposite objects, qualities, or tensions exist in spite of appearance the same field of force (6). Barth also looks at supplication as a means of bringing these cardinal forces into harmony (natural and supernatural). Coleridge is concerned with prayer but at a deeper level as a means of uniting the creature with the Creator (90). Coleridges guilt feelings and need for redemption is bound to his longing for forgiveness and friendship with God. Coleridge calls prayer the the effort to connect the misery of Self with the blessedness of God (90). It is a means of connecting the natural to the supernatural, the temporal to the eternal, and the immanent to the transcendent. Barth states that even though Coleridge does move from his Unitarian ideology to his Christian ideology, a shift that can be seen in the poem and its revision, this idea of prayer is still deep within Coleridges soul. Although, Barth explores prayer within the poem during Coleridges modulation, this shift of faith can be explored further as means for a proper hermeneutic in interpreting Coleridges poem.Christopher Stokes article My Soul In Agony Irrationality And Christianity In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner explores the struggle between the physical and the spiritual world in Coleridges poem. His poem contains gothic elements that seem unintelligible and irrational. Stokes states that these elements stalking from Coleridges Unitarian moral theory that he subscribed to at the time. Because these strange elements are unintelligible, there is an ambiguity between the supernatural events and orthodox religion. though much of the poem seems to use Christian terms, there is still details that are ambiguous and this creates distance between familiar and unfamiliar. Stokes states that these ambiguous moments create a divided tone and he claims this is from Coleridges difficult transition from Unitarianism to Anglican Christianity. Coleridge struggled with Christianitys concept of original pit and a closer examination must be conducted to understand why he possibly struggled with it.The concept and principle of genuine Sin was developed by the early Roman church service and was base on Pauls teachings found in the Book of Romans. In the older Testament (specifically from generation), Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden and the resoluteness was that they were cursed and banished out of the Garden. Because of the actions of Adam and Eve, sin (a propensity t o disobey God) originated in the Garden and continued to all future generations. Paul teaches a reinterpretation of this Genesis story. In Romans 5.12, Paul states that just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. At the time of Pauls teaching, audiences of the early Gospels will be familiar with the story of Jesus (especially since Mark and Matthew may have been move prior to Romans being written). The audiences would understand that Jesus died as a sacrificial lamb for the sins (actual personal committed sins a personal disobedience) of all man. But Paul goes to reinterpret Christs death to add that Jesus died to not only remove our personal sins but also to remove the hold of original sin on humanity which results in death. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous (Romans 5.19). This meant that all humanity was sinful for their personal sins and guilty for the sin of Adam and Eve that was passed to generations.Later under the Roman church, revere Augustine of Hippo taught that all of humanity was in a state of sin that came from Adam. Man is born with sin and a weakened free-will that gravitates toward sin. Adam and Eves sin and guilt is carried onto each generation (Kelley, 34-38). This was the concept of Original Sin. This is a judgement that is still held today by Catholics and Protestants (although, it may vary based on demonization).But Unitarians do not believe in the concept of Original Sin. They do not believe that the sin of Adam and Eve diminished all of humanity and that we still carry their guilt. They state it would contradict the savour and justice of God to attribute to us the sin of others, because sin is ones own personal action (Jozsef, 107). This was a key to why Coleridge struggled in his mutation to Christianity and is evident in his poem. Stokes, in his article, explains the struggle readers have with the strange and irrational elements in the poem are reflective and evidence of Coleridges struggle in his departure from Unitarian ideology to Anglican ideology. An example can be seen with the killing of the Albatross which many critics agree is a strange element to the poem. The Mariner simply kills the bird with no thought prior and the only shock is from the Wedding Guest. The crew at first thought it wrong, but then agreed that the bird was bad luck. Without the gloss notes (and in the original 1798 version), it seems that even nature is unmoved by something that seemed like a abuse and the reader isnt given any reason that the killing set any clear event in motion (a determinative effects of motives based on Unitarian moral theory (5)). The albatross death is a powerful but initially unintelligible event but has no obvious moral or religious significance (6). Coleridge, after his conversion and firming in Christian ideology, comes to term with original sin and revises his work (through additions, subtractions, and including a gloss for the poem) giving it a more Anglican tone. The gloss becomes an Anglican hermeneutic bringing the poem under a Christian ideology and moral order. The poem under the gloss gives it a Christian salvational flight (20). It is only through the gloss (and Coleridges later revision in 1817) that we develop that the ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen. Stokes understands the reciprocal critical belief that the Mariner conspicuously relies on Christian rituals and beliefs . . . the Christian doctrine fails to explain his world of excessive suffering and irrational events (11). But he states that before we dismiss these strange elements as irrational, we must explore Coleridges religious thinking at the time of writing the poem and both its revisions. It is only through the examination of his personal faith and conversion that we can develop a proper hermeneutic to interpret Coleridges poem.It would be mistaken to assume irrationality as a failure of the poems Christian moral code. One must look at Coleridges conversion as well as his struggle with the Christian doctrine of original sin that creates the irrational or at least creates ambiguous language. It is only through this hermeneutic that we can fully understand and appreciate Coleridges poem where he attempts to understand and present to us the concepts that are beyond understanding.