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Commento: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

di Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Commento in inglese:

The poem is highly symbolic. The sea voyage might represent life itself and the story reflects the parable of mankind, original sin – here represented by the killing of the albatross – and the path to repentance.
However, the poem refuses to be reduced to a simple parable. The “unnatural” nature of the mariner’s act can be seen as a representation of an inherent conflict between nature and man, whose own “nature” is to continually try to overcome the limits of natural law. In romantic terms, man, because of the excessive quality of his desire, is a figure of “positive evil”, i.e. the kind of evil which radically alters nature, creating an imbalance and turning the world upside down by his acts.
Coleridge, in the punishment of the mariner, attempts to correct this imbalance, but it is too late. The mariner’s perpetual retelling of the story continually returns us to the “act” by which he separated himself from natural law.
Another perspective which has opened up recently focuses on its allusion to exploration and colonialism. The exploratory voyages which the English navy were carrying out at this time often brought British sailors into contact with friendly natives who were happy to help and trade with them. However, as in Columbus’s voyages, the natives’ ingenuous character made them vulnerable to exploitation and violence. The albatross in Coleridge’s poem may be seen as a symbol of this betrayal of trust and the ensuring sense of guilt and unease it created in the minds of sensitive people.



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