Coleridge described his poem as a 'work of pure imagination'. To what extent do you agree with his assessment of 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'?

Coleridge described his poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ to be a work of ‘pure imagination’. This could be in referral to any number of things throughout the poem, for instance – the consistent ambiguity in the significance of the different aspects of the story which could be in relation to the albatross or even the dramatic and spectacular changes in the environment that are somewhat reminiscent of fantasy.

Many people argue that this is an accurate assessment of this poem because of these features, as well as others such as the extraordinary experiences which the Mariner and his crew are forced to endure such as the contrast between freezing in a glacial wasteland and dehydrating under a blistering sun, and then the even more stranger – witnessing the crew return from the dead and coming into contact with a full ghost crew and ship.

It is these aspects specifically which may lead the reader to believe that the entire poem was spawned purely from Coleridge’s imagination, however – it can also be argued that ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is not purely imaginative. This is because there are several points throughout the story which seem anchored into the morality of religion, for example - sleep is ascended to the ideal image of a gift from the Virgin Mary, because it had been impossible to achieve before, the Mariner saw the escape as somewhat ‘sacred’.

The entire story of the poem could also be compared to the original sin made by the first humans, Adam and Eve. Just as Eve ate the forbidden fruit albeit she was explicitly warned against it and was henceforth banished from the Garden of Eden, the Mariner shot down the albatross for no apparent reason, even though it had acted as a guide for him and his crew and was forced to suffer the consequences. The heavy morality linked with this classic tale of crime and retribution may also influence readers to believe that the poem was not formed purely based on imagination.

In my own opinion, I believe that the framework of the tale is based on external factors such as religion or superstition created by someone other than Coleridge, however I also believe that the nature of the punishment delivered to the Mariner, and in fact the crime that he committed was a work of Coleridge’s own imagination. Of course, if the reader is non-religious, the only part of the poem that will seem non-fictional is the ideology of morality and the theme of crime and punishment, however – I believe that there is definitely a structure to Coleridge’s work as opposed to it being purely self-invented, and therefore I must somewhat disagree with Coleridge, as I do not believe that the ideals of the story are imagined, even if the actual story is.