"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Bookworm History

[@whitefoamsea8070]

put 2 of your books on your chair mate.

[@BookwormHistory]

Hahahahaha! Yeah, this video makes me cringe a bit now. I had just started making videos and didn't have a camera with a flip-out screen, or the knowledge to properly frame the shot.

[@LiteraryGladiators]

I like how you take the historical approach or just the historical perspective to works of literature. It is quite something how Coleridge never really saw the great acclaim the way he sees it today, for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner has become a key work in English Romanticism. Thank you for sharing! -Josh

[@BookwormHistory]

+Literary Gladiators Thanks Josh! Much as I love literature and art and all manner of other things (and I do!) I find that a lot of the time the stories behind those things are just as fascinating.

[@jojoquigley7741]

Sin, death, rebirth, redemption, etc. exist in many religions. Given Jung's collective unconscious, maybe there is no real separation between Christian symbols and other world religions and myths. Do you know if The Rime of The Ancient Mariner is popular in cultures around the world ? Has it been translated into other languages, including non-European languages ? Also, I'm guessing that Coleridge had no idea that this poem would rise to the top of the popularity charts when he wrote it.

[@BookwormHistory]

I'm not sure if "Ancient Mariner" has really permeated other cultures or languages the way it has in English, but it's a fascinating question. A quick glance through a couple books on Coleridge didn't come up with anything on translations, but that's hardly to say they don't exist. As to whether Coleridge had any idea of his legacy, I would say yes and no. He was certainly appreciated by the literary elite of the day, but didn't really appeal to mass markets the way others did. To say he was a cliché "unappreciated genius" may not be entirely accurate, but he probably did feel his work a bit unappreciated in his lifetime.

[@HirundoArvensis]

Hello! May I have a while of your time? I'm writing my thesis for high school final exams. My theme are birds. While your video is wonderful and does a great job explaining in which historical circumstances it's been written, I didn't quite find what I was looking for. You said the Albatross is there because they needed to include a crime in the story and gave practical explanation of this choice, but could you tell me something more? I already know that the Albatross was seen as a good omen, but is there more to it? The albatross has to spend its entire life in flight, since only an extremely strong wind is capable to give it the thrust to rise to the sky. Could it be a parallelism to the fate expecting the mariner?

[@goodleshoes]

Great info

[@romaniahasmetal]

I bet the views on this video blow up each year during finals :)))

[@BookwormHistory]

Ahahaha! They definitely do! There's three or four of these videos that have what I like to call "the midterm bump"

[@AHouseDivided1998]

That’s why I’m here. 😂

[@soulpatch59]

Are you going to do 'Kublai Khan'? Please!

[@BookwormHistory]

+soulpatch59 Ooooo, that is a fantastic idea! Such a weird, cool story! I'll definitely have to put one together on that poem!

[@jojoquigley7741]

Is the Rime of the Ancient Mariner a Christian allegory ?

[@BookwormHistory]

It's hard to say, and it's an ongoing debate among scholars and critics. On the one hand, the poem is full of symbols and events indicative of Christian narratives (as well as other faiths and mythologies), and so (to quote from Martin Gardner) "The poem is thus an allegory in the higher sense in which certain Greek myths may be considered allegorical. Coleridge himself, in his criticism, stressed the difference between what he called an allegory -- a story in which every object and incident is symbolic of something else -- and a symbolic narrative in which only certain objects and incidents give to the story, in an overall way, a universal meaning". Coleridge didn't leave behind any writings suggesting how he meant the poem to be interpreted, but he must have been away of the various Christian symbols he weaved into the work. Whether he meant the poem to be a pure Christian allegory, or whether those symbols were used to give the poem, as Gardner says, "a universal meaning" is simply unknown. Ultimately, like a lot of great art, the interpretation is up to the person beholding it. I hope that helps! Thanks for watching!

[@hannahscofield9603]

BookwormHistory I truly enjoyed this. Thanks for making this video years ago!

[@mrvsbhs]

Iron Maiden approves

[@BookwormHistory]

🤘🎵🎸

[@peterprablo1331]

Ive got that exact book

[@dirk4926]

William Wordsworth may be a fantastic name for a poet, but Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a great name for a male pornstar