The Rime of the Christo-Mariner

When Samuel Coleridge set pen to paper, it is clear, he knew his bible well. In his Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christian mythology and symbolism abound. The three main elements of the story, the Mariner, the Albatross, and the Sun, each play a role as Jesus. From the first stanza, Coleridge begins his biblical allusions and, through the Mariner's eyes, paints a vivid picture wrought with the Christian god and angelic hordes as recurring …

…fiend/Doth close behind him tread." Evil seems to lurk close behind at all times. Coleridge, certainly an exceptional writer, would not have been dissatisfied, it seems, to have been a man of the cloth. From Rime of the Ancient Mariner alone, he makes an impression of how a great deal of the world mimics Christian belief. Although not intended to be factual, nor construed as such, Rime is a well developed, character-based morality play.