linking rime of the ancient mariner to imaginative journeys (1 Viewer)

mumble_grumble

New Member
Joined
May 20, 2004
Messages
2
Hi all
Im having trouble finding what the rime of the ancient mariner (ROTAM) has to do with imaginative journeys.
So far ive got from the CSU website that it relates to imaginative journeys through the

-- The getting of Wisdom
-- The spiritual journey of the Mariner
-- The responsibility to share knowledge
-- Combination of Nature and imagination

I dunno if im extremely dumb or what- but I cant see how any of those things relates to the concept of imaginative journeys!

can anyone somehow tie the spiritual journey of the mariner to imaginative journeys?
 

nedloh01

New Member
Joined
May 6, 2004
Messages
2
re Rime of the Ancient Mariner

I don't know wether this helps much, but the approch i got told to take to relate it to imaginative journeys is when the ship of death & death herself actually appears in the poem. We know that this cannot happen in real life, hence it is sort of an imaginative journey.

Hope it helps
 

Lorie

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2004
Messages
421
Location
Brisbane
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
the joy about rime of the anicent mariner, is it is so broad, you can look at it so many different ways.

I like to think of it as a journey into the sub-conious mind, The sea being symbolic of the unknown. Through this journey the mariner experiances a range of emotions that can only be obtained through imagaination. The emotions of guilt, regret and a bleak outcome, are shown through repetition, first person, allietation, and so forth. However, such is the journey that the mariner, learns through experiance, and turns his regret into joy, whlist still reminding conious of his previous actions and being ever reminded, through the albatross hung around his neck. This jouney is expressed through the wedding guest (a voice for the reader), while the physical jouney being the wedding.

Rime can also be taken as the blessing and curse of creativity. While Creativity can be joy, enlightment, and fulfillment. It can also bring isloation, "alone,alone,all,all, alone", and a feeling of not fitting in with society, like coleridge experiancd through out his life.
 

Candypants

Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2004
Messages
142
Location
Wonderland
#1: It's Coleridge's imaginative journey becuse the Mariner journeys to a place that isn't real - as we can tell by the descriptions ("land of wondrous cold") and elements of the supernatural.

#2: It's the reader's journey, who is compelled to listen to it and experience the journey.
 
S

Shuter

Guest
#3 it's the mariner's imaginative journey as things happen to him that could not possibly be real, also he's recounting it from his mind/imagination at the party thing they're at.

Take it any or all of the three ways, just make up some crap about what they learned from this journey, all is done.
 

eth

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2004
Messages
49
Location
Northern Rivers
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
If you can, to talk about how the wedding-guest is drawn into the journey by the mariner

"He holds him with his glittering eye"
"He listens like a three-years child"


and thus Coleridge draws us into the journey as well.

Another good point to discuss is the power of nature - he was cursed because "With my cross-bow / I shot the ALBATROSS." and was freed from the curse through his appreciation of the "Blue, glossy green, and velvet black" beauty of the water snakes.

You can link RotAM to Kubla Kahn quite easily, too, as a good way to strengthen your response. Both discuss the fear people have of the persona due to his experiences "I moved my lips--the pilot shrieked / And fell down in a fit ; / The holy Hermit raised his eyes, / and prayed where he did sit." "And all should cry, Beware ! Beware ! / His flashing eyes, his floating hair !"
 

eth

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2004
Messages
49
Location
Northern Rivers
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
Shuter said:
#3 it's the mariner's imaginative journey as things happen to him that could not possibly be real, also he's recounting it from his mind/imagination at the party thing they're at.

Take it any or all of the three ways, just make up some crap about what they learned from this journey, all is done.
It is more the imaginative journey of the wedding-guest than the mariner. As far as the poem is concerned, the mariner did undergo these experiences - In Coleridge's time, these sorts of beings were believed in whole-heartedly, and the composer's context is as important as the responders' when writing about any text.

There is a quote from T. Burnet acommpanying the poem, slightly modified by Coleridge. The English translation is as follows:

"I can easily believe that there are more invisible than visible Beings in the universe. But who shall describe for us their families? and their ranks and relationships and distinguishing features and functions? What they do? where they live? The human mind has always circled around a knowledge of such things, never attaining it. I do not doubt, however, that it is sometimes beneficial to conlemplate, in thought, as in a Picture, the image of a greater and better world; lest the intellect, habituated to the trivia of daily life, may contract itself too much, and wholly sink into trifles. But at the same time we must be vigilant for truth, and maintain proportion, that we may distinguish certain from uncertain, day from night."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
 
Last edited:

loserkid

New Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
2
eep

i hate this its just like there never seems to be enough contrasting or teeing up of anything in english especially rime =( trials are tomororw
 

kaylz

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
849
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2000
TEE UP. Hey Simone aka Loserkid. What colour tee did Schill give you? I got blue. :) How cute was that?
 

-Swifty-

B.Sc B.A usyd
Joined
Apr 26, 2005
Messages
239
Location
around..
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
ha its my fav poem lol...

um did u think about the way in which th wedding guest is really a representation of the audience? He is basically us in the poem.

Umm go theu the syllabus and find the points they use about having jounryes of speculation, inspiration, challenge thinking and the main point of the journey having enlightened your understanding of the world.

Hence this thing about enlightening ur world comes into the end of ROTAM, "a sadder man he rose the morrow morn" with a sense of "forlorn"

but yeah base ur essay around the stupid IJ syllabus thing
 

hipPo3

Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2005
Messages
480
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
i know this thread is a tad old

Candypants said:
#1: It's Coleridge's imaginative journey becuse the Mariner journeys to a place that isn't real - as we can tell by the descriptions ("land of wondrous cold") and elements of the supernatural.

#2: It's the reader's journey, who is compelled to listen to it and experience the journey.
And how do we know its not real ? .. he gives directions in the poem and out on that lil blurb of his..
the imagination ocurs after he kills the albatros, the forecommin of death
from the readers perspective: the journey begins in the wedding scene where we are forced to imagine ourselves in the wedding guest's shoes.
 

graduateof08

New Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Messages
18
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
i think the imaginative journey is as simple as the mariner telling the tale. he is telling the tale of something that has already happened to him....going back into the past, like coleridge does in "frost at midnight".
 

M@D K1D

New Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2007
Messages
2
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
hipPo3 said:
i know this thread is a tad old


And how do we know its not real ? .. he gives directions in the poem and out on that lil blurb of his..
the imagination ocurs after he kills the albatros, the forecommin of death
from the readers perspective: the journey begins in the wedding scene where we are forced to imagine ourselves in the wedding guest's shoes.
if you read about coleridge you can see that the context in which this poem was written was during the time he was reading a book, which atm i cant remember the full title off but it was somthing like a voyage over the great sea, but anyway the character in the book killed an albatross and coleridge decided about how much god will fuck u up if you do this

-ciao
 

M@D K1D

New Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2007
Messages
2
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
the imaginary journey in this poem is almost the same as frost at midnight, coleridge went on a journey through memories in FAM and in ROTAM the mariner went on an imaginary journey through his memories in order to give the wedding guest a greatly detailed account of what had happend


-ciao
 

need2party

New Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2007
Messages
8
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
M@D K1D said:
if you read about coleridge you can see that the context in which this poem was written was during the time he was reading a book, which atm i cant remember the full title off but it was somthing like a voyage over the great sea, but anyway the character in the book killed an albatross and coleridge decided about how much god will fuck u up if you do this

-ciao
"the character in the book killed an albatross and coleridge decided about how much god will fuck u up if you do this"

hahaha this is priceless
well done
:D
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top