Contradictory Voice In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Just like Marlow’s contradictory voice is presented in ‘The Heart of Darkness’, in the ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ the Mariner’s voice is also presented by Coleridge as contradictory. This is due to the structure of the text as the poem resists a religious framework. However, the marginal annotations suggest a holy Christian reading and religious acceptance. This Christian reading is evident through language such as “pious” and “light of the moon be beholdeth God’s creatures of the great calm”. This is language which is devoutly religious. This devoutly religious reading is further presented in the marginal annotations through references to religious figures such as “Josephus, and the Platonic Constentanio-politan, Michael Psellus” However the frequent “silence” within the poem may

He did this in order for the poem to be read with a Christian framework. However in my opinion the references to devoutly religious figures such as Michael Psellus seem irrelevant to the context of the poem. This irrelevance could present Coleridge as a slightly deluded poet as he fails to significantly relate the annotations to specific content in the poem. Therefore critics like John Beer have commented on the fact that the marginal annotations were written by “a scribe whom we figure as having written them was even more deluded than the Mariner”. The readers may be able to identify Coleridge’s deluded state as Coleridge creates tension between the Mariner’s ambiguous poem and the unambiguous religious marginal annotations. This exposes a distance between the old 1797 version of the poem and the new 1817 version, whereby the readers attempt to understand the meaning of the marginal annotations. Coleridge’s deluded state could also be seen during the writing process of ‘Kubla Khan’. Coleridge wrote this poem from opium infused dreams as “it was composed in a state of mind which was not fully