SVEUILITE U MOSTARU

FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET
STUDIJ ENGLESKOG JEZIKA I KNJIEVNOSTI

MYTH AND THE SUPERNATURAL IN COLERIDGES

POETRY
Zavrni rad

Mostar, 2013.

FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET U MOSTARU

STUDIJ ENGLESKOG JEZIKA I KNJIEVNOSTI

MYTH AND THE SUPERNATURAL IN

COLERIDGES POETRY
Zavrni rad

Kolegij: Survey of English Literature II

Mentor:
Student:

Mostar, studeni 2014.

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Imagination and creativity have not only been the foundations of literature since the
beginning of time, but have also offered an escape from harsh reality. During the English
Romantic period, fantasy literature began to be an important literary style. There were many
social, political, religious and philosophical reasons because of which Romanticism was
formed; political occurrences, religious confusions, philosophical ideologies and social unrest
all affected the element of escapism in writers thoughts, personalities and ultimately their
works. A conflict was felt by the society then and the English were experiencing an economic
and societal collapse. English Romantic poets were dissatisfied with the modernized world of
eighteenth century, so they found happiness in their own world of imagination, where they
preferred to escape from the cruel reality of their time; the writers reacted to all problems of
that time by returning to fantasy, myth, supernatural and unexplainable tales and this reaction
led to the genre of fantasy literature.

The Romantic period, unlike the Enlightenment, was more open to the mythic, mystic,
and spiritual. The Enlightenment tended toward the rational and natural and away from the
supernatural. A crucial factor in the Enlightenment was deism, which was not a specific
religion, but a belief that God (the creator) does exist, that he set up the universe and then let
it run without further interference. With the Romantic era, we see literature again dealing with
the supernatural. Romantics might have chosen from any number of mythological
perspectives; what they had in common was the desire to use these various approaches as
ways of experiencing life.

Symbolism and myth were given great prominence in the Romantic conception of art.
In the Romantic view, symbols were the human aesthetic correlatives of nature's
emblematic language. They were valued too because they could simultaneously

suggest many things, and were thus thought superior to the one-to-one
communications of allegory. Partly, it may have been the desire to express the
"inexpressible"--the infinite--through the available resources of language that led to
symbol at one level and myth (as symbolic narrative) at another.1

In this final paper, I will try to analyze the supernatural elements and elements of
mythology in two poems written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan and The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner. The supernatural is a dominant element, and these complex poems
reflect Romanticisms focus on relationships between creative imagination and nature.
In Road to Xanadu (1927), a book length study of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla
Khan, John Livingston Lowes claimed that these two poems were "two of the most
remarkable poems in English2. They are different but both extraordinary works in which
Coleridge easily mixes the supernatural with the real through strong visual descriptions.

S. T. Coleridge was able to explore the emotional and supernatural side of the creative
experience; he would immerse himself in exploring the supernatural. Coleridge tried to show
in the supernatural what was psychologically real, and the key was the use of the imagination
and a reliance on symbols and myths. He is presenting series of incredible events in a credible
way by the use of psychological truth, and making us realize the Mariners mental distress by
using a realistic effect: his suffer when he tried to pray but could not, how he felt the horror of
the curse in the dead mens eyes, how the sea and the sky lay like a heavy load on his eyes,
and how he finally felt relief; it seems as any man would feel this way if he were found in

A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html
2

Lowes, John Livingston. The Road to Xanadu. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1927. p. 3

similar circumstances. Christian mythology and symbolism are also very important in
analyzing these poems; I will deal with this complex theme later on in this paper.

Coleridge uses the language to achieve a certain effect on the reader. The language in
these poems is symbolic, strangely disturbing and direct, and Coleridge combines imagination
with a literary device, the uncanny (something mysterious, strange, extraordinary, having a
supernatural or inexplicable basis3). We are not sure if the narrator shows us the real world, or
an unreal world.

Coleridge was able to describe and present the things which he came across through
his faculty of imagination. He had the faculty of presenting unseen and inexperienced things
so vividly as if those had been literally present before his eyes. For example, his presentation
of the place of Kubla Khans palace; it seems as if he was practically present there; we can
have a vivid picture of Kubla Khans stately pleasure dome. The world created by Coleridge
in his whole poem of The Ancient Mariner is the best example of this faculty of Coleridge.
Special emphasis is put on the weather and on sun, moon and stars, as they are very important
for sailors. His imagination could transform simple facts into something mysterious and
wonderful; it was the key for and the essence of his poetry. In both of the poems, we can see
that nature and imagination are closely related. The poems share the motif of a magical quest
never fully achieved: forgiveness by and reunion between the poets self-consciousness and a
divine spirit4.

Possibly the most famous of Coleridges poems The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner epitomizes Coleridges frequent and complex philosophical shifts5. The element of

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/uncanny
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/english/extension1/texts/elect2/3993/romanticism.htm
5
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/english/extension1/texts/elect2/3993/romanticism.htm
4

the supernatural is vital for his writing of this poem. In the following quotation he explains the
way in which he wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and the thoughts he had on mind
while writing it. In Bibliographia Literaria, Coleridge wrote:

The thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a series of poems
might be composed of two sorts. In the one, incidents and agents were to be, in part at
least, supernatural, and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the
affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would naturally accompany such
situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have been to every human
being who, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under
supernatural agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary
life...In this idea originated the plan of the 'Lyrical Ballads'; in which it was agreed,
that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at
least Romantic; ... With this view I wrote the 'Ancient Mariner'.6

Coleridge uses a technique in which the supernatural has been made believable and
convincing. There are lots of impossible, incredible, and fantastic situations in the poem: the
sudden appearance of the mysterious skeleton ship, the spectre-woman and her companion,
the dead crew coming back to life, the sudden sinking of the ship, the polar spirits talking to
each other etc. The setting of the poem is natural, and all the supernatural incidents are set in
it. Coleridge has magnificently interwoven the convincing pictures of nature with these
supernatural elements, for example: the sun shining brightly at the outset, the mist and snow
surrounding the ship, the freezing cold of the arctic region, the moon in the sky with a star or
two etc.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Bibliographia Literaria, Standard Publications,(2008) Inc (UnitedStates) "Chapter

XIV"
6

Coleridge uses the technique of convincing presentation of supernatural elements in

Kubla Khan as well. The description of the landscape is so vivid and precise; the atmosphere
of supernatural mystery is mainly created by a description of the pleasure dome and the
surrounding in which it stood. The description of his dome creates its magical effect on the
reader: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a
sunless sea. (Kubla Khan 3-5) The immeasurable abysses and the sunless sea stir in our
minds the feeling of mystery and even fear. The atmosphere of mystery is emphasized when
another reference is made to the sunless sea or the lifeless ocean into which the water of the
river Alph falls with a loud roar. The similes used for the mighty fountain are so plain and
familiar that it does not occur to the reader that anything incredible is being described. The
whole description creates a world of wonder and enchantment. The atmosphere of strangeness
and mystery has been created effectively and skilfully in the poem.

In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner even the form of the poem with its intrusion of
five or six line stanzas distort the established pattern in order to emphasize the shifts from
reality to the supernatural.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem in which the supernatural is represented
through visions, spirits and demons. Coleridge describes the ice as a malevolent and malicious
power: The ice was here, the ice was there, / The ice was all around: / It cracked and
growled, and roared and howled, / Like noises in a swound. (Rime 59-62). The sailors began
to dream of a malevolent spirit following them from under the ocean, which is another
example of evil power: And some in dreams assured were / Of the Spirit that plagued us so; /
Nine fathom deep he had followed us / From the land of mist and snow. (Rime 131-134)
After the Albatross has been killed, the colour of the water becomes strange at night; the
green, blue and white are compared to witchs oils, which are used for spells and
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enchantment: The water, like a witchs oils, / Burnt green, and blue and white. (Rime 129130) In Coleridges another poem, Kubla Khan, what can be seen as a kind of a negative
power is the ocean and the caverns. The ocean is a mysterious place with no life or light; it is
just an empty space where everything ends, including the river Alph. The caverns are
underground, cold, frightening and huge; they are measureless to man (Kubla Khan 4)

The struggle between the powers of good and evil brings to mind aspects of religion.
The albatross, for example, has been interpreted in many ways by critics. The majority sees it
as a symbol of Christ because Jesus Christ is sometimes compared metaphorically to a bird in
Christian symbolism: As if it had been a Christian soul, / We hailed it in Gods name. (Rime
65-66). The albatross becomes a symbol of the Mariners big mistake; it is clear that when the
mariner shoots the albatross without an apparent reason or motif, it is as though the mariner
has rejected God and goodness and surrenders himself to dark forces and the supernatural.
Coleridge uses these dark forces to express the supernatural through symbolism and allegory.
The albatross also represents nature, as well as truth, light and goodness, and the light, when
destroyed or abandoned, allows dark supernatural forces to come into play.

There is also a sense of unreality and supernatural when, after the mariner has blessed
the water, the dead men come alive: They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, / Nor spake,
nor moved their eyes; / It had been strange, even in a dream, / To have seen those dead men
rise. (Rime 335-338) The reason is hidden from us until: Sweet sounds rose slowly through
their mouths, (Rime 356) and we realise that the good spirits motivate them. Coleridge shows
us, through morality, spirituality and allegory, a journey of self-discovery, aided by his kind
feelings towards the beautiful water-snakes. A spring of love gushed from my heart, (Rime
284)

Cazamian says: The supernatural element in The Ancient Mariner is a hallucination,

the outcome of the remorse by the most sober of method.7 Eventually, the Mariner achieves
something like enlightenment in a desire to repeat his story for the benefit of others. Maybe
this in itself is a further penance. The moral of this poems story is a very serious one: one
should love and respect all Gods creatures. The poem also contains a universal and a
personal truth because the mariner has learned about himself and about his relation to the
world through his supernatural experience.

Although it has not the same level of supernaturalism as is found in The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner, yet the supernatural in the poem Kubla Khan stands out quite
conspicuously. For example, the woman wailing for her demon lover, A savage place! As
holy and enchanted / As eer beneath a waninig moon was haunted / By woman wailing for
her demon-lover! (Kubla Khan 14-16) and the ancestral voices prophesying war, And mid
this tumult Kubla heard from far / Ancestral voices prophesying war! (Kubla Khan 29-30);
are obviously supernatural occurrences. The poetic frenzy of an inspired poet borders on the
supernatural. The tumultuous (noisy) rise of the river Alph from a deep romantic chasm is
also given an unmistakable supernatural touch: Five miles meandering with a mazy motion /
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, / Than reached the caverns measureless to man, /
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean; (Kubla Khan 25-28)

There are also a large number of situations in The Ancient Mariner that fill us either
with a sense of mystery or a feeling of horror, or both. The first situation that evokes terror in
the Mariners heart (and the readers too) is the appearance of the skeleton-ship. The
description of the ship fills us with fear. It is a strange mystery that the ship is sailing on the

Legouis, Emile, Cazamian, Louis and Douglas-Irvine, Helen, A History of English Literature

sea without the wind and without a tide, while the Mariners ship stands still: As idle as a
painted ship / Upon a painted ocean (Rime 117-118) Obviously, it was some kind of a
supernatural force that drives the ship and the crew also consists of supernatural characters.
The feeling of the terror is heightened when he realises that Death and its companion, Life-inDeath, are on that ship. However, Coleridge does not describe their physical or external
features; he creates the sense of horror with suggestive and psychological methods. The
appearance of the Life-in-Death is presented to us in these lines: Her lips were red, her looks
were free, / Her locks were yellow as gold: /Her skin was as white as leprosy, (Rime 190192) These three lines are followed by these two: The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was
she, / Who thicks mans blood with cold. (Rime 193-194) Coleridge conveys the horror by
saying that the sight of her would have the effect of freezing a mans blood. He leaves it to us
to imagine for ourselves the horrible appearance of Life-in-Death that personifies the
unspeakable torture of a man that cannot die.

As suggestiveness is a very important ingredient of Coleridges supernaturalism, we

should note the closing lines of the poem Kubla Khan, which contain a picture of poetic
frenzy, a blending of natural and the supernatural. A poets inspiration comes from the wellknown and natural facts of human life but there i something supernatural about the way in
which the poetic inspiration and the creative power of the poet are depicted. Every line here
emphasizes the feeling of mystery and fear which is the key of the poem:

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floatin hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice.
And close your eyes with holy dread
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For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise. (Kubla Khan 49-54)

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a religious allegory consisting of numerous themes
concerning Christianity. As we already know, Christianity preaches that life is a trial on
which we either pass and go to heaven or fail and go to purgatory. Human body is represented
by the soul, therefore, we can refer to the ship as the human body and the Mariner who steers
the ship and leads it into destruction as the human soul. In Christianity, when a person dies,
his body rots away, and the soul remains alive, either tortured or pleased. In the poem the ship
sinks (human body dies), however, the Mariner becomes a captive of the Life-in-Death, which
is an allegory for the purgatory and remains cursed for the mistake he has done.

Another symbol of Christianity in this poem is the bird, the Albatross, which
symbolizes Jesus Christ. When the storm destroys everything, the Albatross appears and saves
the ship: At length did cross an Albatross, / Thorough the fog it came; / As if it had been a
Christian soul, / We hailed it in Gods name. (Rime 63-66) The Albatross lead the ship to its
right track just as Jesus leads His followers to heaven. Another reference of the Albatross to
Christ is when the Mariner kills it with a cross-bow (as a symbol of the cross that Christ died
on). Also, after the murder, the guilt strikes the Mariner for killing a good spirit: Instead of
the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung. (Rime 121-122)

After killing the Albatross, a second ship appears carrying Death and Life-in-Death.
This ship could represent a mans life without Christ, because Christianity states that a life
without faith and religion is empty. Since the Mariners life appears to be without Christ,
Death and its partner reach for him. The Mariner becomes cursed forever and does not die,
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but lives Life-in-Death, which is much worse than dying. His destiny is to wander around and
tell his story to make him feel better.

Paganism against Christianity is one of the themes that can be found in Kubla Khan,
and this is related to the river Alph, referring to an underground river that passes through
dimensions that could not be understood by any man, and then emptying into an underground
sea. Everything about the river is mysterious and enigmatic.

Another topic that the poem introduces is a Biblical reference when it talks about the
garden; the land is constructed as a paradisiacal garden, but like Eden after Man's fall, Xanadu
is isolated by walls, With walls and towers were girdled round; (Kubla Khan 7). There is
also another reference to the Garden of Eden: And there were gardens bright with sinuous
rills, (Kubla Khan 8). Sinuous rills can be represented as two different metaphors; rills
can either mean a stream or a valley on the moon. The moon is seen as a source of all
creativity in Romantic idealism, so the first metaphor is very significant. On the contrary,
when it speaks of Forests ancient as the hills, / Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. (Kubla
Khan 10-11), this reference to the sun contrasts with the valleys on the moon. The second
metaphor refers to that of the snake in the Garden of Eden. The word sinuous implies
snakelike.

In the second part of the poem, there is a change in subject, writing and tone. While
the first line of the poem begins with lines In Xanadu did Kubla Khan (Kubla Khan 1)
referring to a male, the second part of the poem refers to a female character: A damsel with a
dulcimer (Kubla Khan 37), emphasizing the change in the sections and the difference
between paganism and Christianity.

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The numerological Christian references are significant in the poem The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner. Number three represents The Holy Trinity (The Father, The Son and The
Holy Spirit) as well as Christs resurrection on the third day after he was crucified. In this
poem, in Part III, the Life-in-Death wins the battle and whistles three times: The game is
done! Ive won! Ive won! / Quoth she, and whistles thrice. (Rime 197-198) Number seven
is significant in the Bible because it represents the number of days it took God to create the
Earth. In the poem, the Mariner remains afloat for seven days until he gets rescued by the boat
Also, he is haunted by the dead shipmates open eyes for seven days and seven nights:
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, / And yet I could not die. (Rime 261-262)
Nevertheless, the poem is made of seven parts, Part III includes the storys climax and Part
VII is the poems end with a moral.

A symbolical characteristic of numerological Christian references in Kubla Khan is

the number five. It can be found twice in this poem. It is mentioned the first time when the
poet is speaking of Khans palace of Xanadu. Coleridge says: So twice five miles of fertile
ground (Kubla Khan 6), instead of simply saying ten. The second use of the number five is
after the pleasure-dome has been subdued by natures wrath. The significance of the number
five is huge in paganism. The number five refers to the fifth element, the spirit, which is the
source of all magic and life on Earth in pagan belief. Another number that can be noted in this
poem is number three: Weave a circle round him thrice (Kubla Khan 51). The three circles
that they weave around him can have two references; it can be an ancient, superstitious
ritual to keep an evil spirit at the bay, and a reference to The Holy Trinity.

Another important religious theme in The ancient Mariner is the one that relates the
Mariners story to that of Adam and Eve, who were the first sinners and the cause of all
humankinds suffering, just like the Mariners sin causes his shipmates pain and torture. In
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both stories, a sin is committed, a curse and a punishment are set, and regret is felt after living
the curse. The snake in Adam and Eves story is the one that encouraged them to sin,
however, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner the snakes are there for him to bless in order to
be freed from the curse.

We can also find a connection between the Biblical story about Adam and Eve and
Coleridges Kubla Khan; Coleridge is talking about a woman who is Eve, and she is wailing
for the source of her desires, literary her demon lover, but figuratively for the apple that got
her thrown out of Eden.

An important symbol in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a symbol of narration. The
Mariner narrates his story to the wedding guest, and will always have to narrate it wherever he
goes, which may be connected with preaching. The Mariner preaches the moral of respect
toward all Gods creatures in the end of the poem: He prayeth best, who loveth best /All
things both great and small; / For the dear God who loveth us, / He made and loveth all.
(Rime 608-611) In the Bible, the preaching is very important; Jesus preached all his life and
so did the apostles after Him. The Mariner could also be a symbol of Christ who suffers in
order to preach the message to others, so he could save them from sin.

On the other hand, the poem Kubla Khan has no moral, no message; the poem closes
with these lines: For he on honey-dew hath fed, / And drunk the milk of Paradise. (Kubla
Khan 53-54) Here the author is maybe trying to say that his life has been very luxurious and
that he was a powerful man. This could be connected with the fact that Coleridge was an
opium addict, and maybe on one of that trips that he had, saw the land Xanadu, with its
leader Kubla Khan, and later wrote that poem.

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In The Rime of the Ancient mariner Coleridge links real and supernatural events to
manipulate and disorient the reader in preparation for the Mariners redemptive harmony with
nature, which is further intensified by the intrusion of the seraphic voices. The dialogue
between the First and Second voices that introduce Part V1 dramatizes the supernatural and
mystical forces in nature and is linked to the call and response of the Mariners self
questioning and the dialogue between the Wedding Guest and the Mariner. The terror
culminates in the sinking of the ship and the madness of the Pilots boy.
Along with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan is one of Coleridges most
famous and enduring poems. This poem has the elements of supernaturalism, mystery, fertile
imagination, dream quality, medievalism, love of Nature, meditative note, humanitarianism,
music and narrative skill which distinguish Coleridges poetry as the most complete
representative of the English Romantic poetry of the early nineteenth century.

Kubla Khan is a product of pure fantasy, it is a dream fragment. It is one of

Coleridges three masterpieces of supernatural poetry. It is a dream poem, a poem of magic, a
vision of a drunken mind completely free from the domination of the rational elements.

In the light of all above, we can safely say that these two poems (along with
Christabel) are masterpieces with all the qualities of Coleridges poetry and are living
embodiments of supernaturalism, mythology, elements of mystery, fertile imagination, all of
which distinguish Coleridges poetry as the most complete representative of the English
Romantic poetry of the early nineteenth century.

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Saetak

Potreba za mitologijom i nadnaravnim u djelima pisaca romantizma se javljala zbog

tekog stanja u drutvu, politikih dogaanja, raznih filozofskih ideologija, vjerske
zbunjenosti i ostalih zbivanja u to doba. Sve su to imbenici koji su dali plodno tlo za razvitak
romantizma. Pisci romantizma su traili bijeg od surove i okrutne stvarnosti, a mogli su ga
nai samo kroz matu i kreativnost u pisanju, i to o stvarima i pojavama koje su nestvarne,
neobjanjive i vrlo esto nemogue. Kroz ovaj zavrni rad sam razvijala temu nadnaravnog i
mitologije u dvije pjesme koje je napisao Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner i Kubla Khan. Obe pjesme su prepune matovitih detalja, opisa i dogaaja, kao i
vjerske mitologije i usporedbi. Coleridge je vjeto prikazivao nestvarno kao stvarno,
natprirodno kao prirodno i nemogue kao mogue.

Moemo sa sigurnou rei da su ove dvije pjesme remek-djela sa svim kvalitetama

Coleridge-ove poezije; one su iva ostvarenja nadnaravnog, mitologije, elemenata misterije i
mate. Sve to razlikuje njegovu poeziju od ostalih. Coleridge je najkompletniji predstavnik
poezije engleskog romantizma u ranom devetnaestom stoljeu.

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Works cited:

A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of
Literature, English Department, Brooklyn College. February 12, 2009.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Bibliographia Literaria, Standard Publications, (2008)

Inc(UnitedStates) "Chapter XIV"

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor,Kubla Khan, 1816.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798.

Legouis, Emile, Cazamian, Louis and Douglas-Irvine, Helen, A History of English

Literature Vol.1, New York, Macmillan, 1926.

Lowes, John Livingston. The Road to Xanadu. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1927. p. 3

"uncanny." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. November 4, 2014.

<Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/uncanny>

Walles, Colleen, Romanticism, State of New South Wales, Department of Education and
Communities and Charles Sturt University,n.d. November 3,
2014.http://hsc.csu.edu.au/english/extension1/texts/elect2/3993/romanticism.htm

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