Use Of Religious Language In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", starts off with the mariner stopping a wedding guest and forced him to listen to his story. The mariner was sailing south of the equator with his crew when a storm came and trapped their ship the ice. The crew members along with the mariner began to lose hope of ever being freed or returning home. Throughout their journey, the crew members and the mariner are faced with the loss of hope, thirst, and death. The mariner was a lone survivor and shares his survival story with everyone he encounters.
Coleridge's father, John Coleridge was a well- respected vicar of the parish. Needless to say, John Coleridge and his son were very religious. Coleridge's father influenced his word choice throughout this poem. Coleridge states that "I never thought as a child, never had the language of a child" (Bloy). Line 65, Coleridge demonstrates religious language, "As if it had been a Christian soul, we hailed it in God's name" (Coleridge). Coleridge uses religious terms in his poem to exaggerate their desperateness. In compromising situations, most people turn to a higher being for faith and hope. In this case, the mariner is turning to God to be released from the wretched sea.

Praying is used in many religious practices. Prayers are typically given to a higher being to give thanks, ask for blessings, intercession, and many other reasons. This quote exemplifies Coleridge's religious word choice, "I looked 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" (246-8). The mariner could pray seven days after his crew member's death. Coleridge says, "The self-same moment I could pray; and from my neck so free the albatross fell off, and sank like lead into the sea", the curse is