Throughout “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” there are two separate narratives occurring at once: the story of a wedding guest listening to the tales of an ancient mariner, and the story that the ancient mariner presents. While the poem opens and closes with the narrative of the wedding guest and the mariner, there are times in which there are breaks in the mariner’s tales to describe what is presently happening. Coleridge wrote this poem in a way that while the mariner’s tales are presented, you are still aware of the present situation, in which the wedding guest listens to these tales. It is not until the end of the poem that the reader and the wedding guest are aware of the ancient mariner’s reason for telling his tale. The mariner describes that the penance for his actions is to tell this tale to others, stating, “Since then, at an …show more content…
Byron states, “I want a hero: an uncommon want, / When every year and month sends forth a new one, / Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant, / The age discovers he is not the true one” (I. 1-4). This opening statement suggests that many poets are producing heroic poetry, but their heroes are not sufficient for a truly heroic poem. Therefore, he decides to write of the legendary hero of Don Juan to create a heroic poem that is set apart from the rest. Don Juan is a hero that is truly fit for the Romantic Period, as he is a man of grandeur and romance. Lord Byron’s decision to write about a character that has long been depicted as a womanizer indicates his desire to produce an epic that strays from the moral confines of the era, to which other poets seem to be tied. Therefore, he uses Don Juan as a romantic hero in such a way that he aims to stop the strict moral guidelines of literature during the Romantic Period, and create an opportunity for literature that depicts immorality through sexual