The value of all living thing
Lucas Garvin
Life is your own journey, not a path that's made for you. You make your own choices based on the actions that affect you. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge explores how actions can spark change, either for good, and more importantly, for evil. The Mariner tells the story of his journey to a wedding guest, and explains how he learns that all life is valuable, and how actions can make large, and at times, unexpected changes.
In this poem, the Mariner begins as careless, and oblivious to his impact on the things around him. The Mariner begins standing on his ship, crossbow in hand and a friendly albatross sitting on the side of the boat. The wedding guest says, “'God save thee, ancient Mariner!/ From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--/ Why look’st thou so?'--With my cross-bow/ I shot the ALBATROSS'"(pg. 7). This shows how careless he is, because without thinking the Mariner shoots the bird with his crossbow. The wedding guest says “why look’st thou so” showing that the Mainer regrets his decision and couldn't still believe what he had done. This is shown in the text, because his face is contorted when he tells the wedding guest about it. He continued his journey, but was punished for his sin and cursed with very bad luck.
They have a dramatic encounter with two apparitions, life and death and his crewmates are sentenced to death, but he remains alive. After killing the bird, bad things happen and he is blamed for the fate of their crew. The Mariner is looking at his crewmates dead bodies of his crewmates and his rotting deck. He is dehydrated and depressed. He proclaims, “I look’d to heaven, and tried to pray;/ But or ever a prayer had gusht,/ A wicked whisper came, and made/ My heart as dry as dust.” This describes how higher beings don’t take pity on him. It also describes how horrible thoughts cloud his mind, probably about how he regrets killing the bird. His heart turning to dust is describing the horrible feeling he gets after thinking about his action. Days pass and time goes on and the curse still pursues him. He is thirsty, and waiting for himself to die.
The Mariner becomes conscious of his action and mistakes and is forced to teach others of his lessons, and wrongdoing. He is looking into the water around his ship, peering at creatures on top of the water. “O happy living things! no tongue/ Their beauty might declare:/ A spring of love gushed from my heart./ And I blessed them unaware:/ Sure my kind saint took pity on me,/ And I blessed them unaware.” This shows his improvement, for seeing beauty in unexpected places shows him growing from a person who destroys nature to someone who realizes the value of life. The quote shows how he learns from being someone who doesn’t think about the importance of others; to someone who doesn’t have to think about life to realize it’s value.
Through the Mariner’s journey he learns not only the value, but the blessings that life can give. He also learns that all life is special in its own way. Killing the albatross made him conscious of his actions, Life-in-Death keeping him alive shows him how death can actually be a relief, and blessing the creatures showed him that all things matter. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner teaches a unique life lesson about how harming others can have large consequences on you and also on people you care about.
