In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", the author uses the story of a sailor and his adventures to reveal aspects of life. This tale follows the Mariner and his crew as they travel between the equator and the south pole, and then back to England. The author's use of symbolism lends the work to adults as a complex web of representation, rather than a children's book about a sailor.
First, in the poem, the ship symbolizes the body of man. The ship experiences trials and tribulations just as a real person does. Its carrying the Mariner (symbolizing the individua…
