The Importance of Line 82

in The Rime of the Ancient

Mariner

By: Bridget Turcotte

For: Dr. Ann Taylor
Course: ENL 241
Date: March 8, 2012
Assignment: Paper 1

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a well-known writer who was very intellectually advanced
and had a large effect on literary life. Although he was a good friend of Wordsworth, his writing
style was very different; Coleridge often spun off into imaginative creativity. This could be due
to him taking opium mixed with alcohol as a pain reliever and becoming addicted for the rest of
his life.
His tale The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is about the relationship between human
beings and the natural world. In this story, an ancient Mariner tells a man who is on his way to a
wedding the details of his journey on a ship; He tells him how they were lost in the fog at sea and
this albatross which is a bird that signifies good luck, was keeping with their ship. They formed
an alliance; the bird and Mariner got along just fine:

And a good south wind sprung up behind;

The Albatross did follow,
And every day for food or play,
Came to the Mariners hollo!
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine. (Lines 71-77)

The way he describes the bird makes the reader think that he really liked the animal and
gave no indication that he would ever cause harm to it. It seemed as though he enjoyed its
company as they were on a somewhat unpleasant trip. Then suddenly the poem shifts and we see
that for no reason at all, the Mariner has shot the Albatross.
God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!-

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Why lookst thou so? With my cross-bow

I shot the Albatross. (Lines 78-82)

This line is very interesting to me because of its abruptness. The way the Mariner told the
story and described every detail of the albatross, I did not expect that he would harm the animal.
He talked about the albatross as if it was a really great creature and then out of nowhere, just flat
out tells the wedding guest that he shot it. In my opinion, he told his story that way to symbolize
the abruptness of his actions.
Coleridge also demonstrates the abruptness in the way that he wrote this line. The
previous stanzas are all marked with quotation marks to show that he is sharing his story with the
wedding guest. Suddenly the quotation marks end and the wedding guest bursts out and asks
God save thee, ancient Mariner! /From the fiends, that plague thee thus! / Why lookst thou
so? and then the Mariner says ever so simply, -With my cross-bow/ I shot the Albatross.
The abruptness in both the way that the story was told by the Mariner and the way that
Coleridge wrote his poem is symbolic for the way humans tend to do things without thinking of
the consequences of their actions. Coleridge was trying to get across the idea that although we
are just one minuscule person, the things we do can affect many different people on great levels
without us even realizing. More importantly the point he wanted to bring to the readers attention
was that we tend to be carelessly destructive to the natural world when in reality, we should be
very respectful of it.
The Mariner continues with his story to the wedding guest, bursting into spontaneous fear
and telling him that his ship was stopped at sea and pirates invaded and killed the whole crew.
He was the only survivor and cursed with having to live for all of eternity, telling his tale to
others. He described this scene in horrific detail which makes it evident that living through it and

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having to replay the memories day after day is a horrible experience that has been set upon him
to act as a consequence to his own actions in killing the Albatross.
Its also important to remember that the Albatross is a symbol of good luck. When the
albatross was around, there were winds from his wings that kept them going a little in the fog.
After he was gone, they became stopped at sea and thats when the pirates invaded their ship.
The Mariner had killed their good luck and in a way was responsible for the death of the entire
crew on the ship.
Yea, Slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea
About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witchs oils, (lines 125-129)

The way that the Mariner described these aspects of the natural world in repulsive
metaphors makes it clear that at this point, he did not have any respect for the nature. After being
granted eternal life, we see that his perception has clearly shifted. He looks at the same water
snakes and describes them as
O happy living things! No tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware; (lines 282-285)
Coleridge put a lot of emphasis on the importance that we as people must have more
respect for the natural world. Aside from the punishment that is set for the Mariner after he kills
the bird, he also makes this point clear in other ways. For example he refers to aspects of nature
as he and personifies them. This shows us that he wants to stress the idea that we are all born

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from nature and should have equal respect for one another. Its very important to him to convey
to the reader the importance of nature that people so often overlook.
The Sun

came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he !
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea. (lines 25-28)
The entire story is told from a point of view of the Mariner looking back and realizing
what his spontaneous actions caused. If only the Mariner had appreciated the natural world
before he selfishly killed the albatross without reason, he would not be cursed with an eternal life
as a sort of walking dead creature. Since he does, he tells his story to everyone he sees so that
they do not have to learn the same lesson the hard way.
The poem would still be successful if Line 82 was not in it because there are many
different messages that can be perceived by reading it. However, the idea that what we do in a
spontaneous instant without even thinking can cause much more harm than we can imagine
would not come across as clearly without it. Also, the concept of thinking about the
consequences of your actions would not have been picked up on as clearly either.
Throughout the poem we can learn the whole story of the ancient Mariner who killed an
Albatross at sea. However, the way that it was written so abruptly in Line 82 makes a much
stronger impact on the reader. Samuel Taylor Coleridge used his outstanding intelligence to send
the reader a clear message using the way the Mariner told his story, the story itself and even the
style in which he wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.