Varying Interpretations of Themes in Rime of the Ancient...

Many things of nature have been interpreted many different ways. For example, a butterfly could be seen as a sign of innocence and freedom, while a storm could be seen as destruction. How the symbol is interpreted is also up to the author themselves. The author could write a poem in which everything within the words is symbolizing the opposite of what would thing. A spider could symbolize intelligence instead of fear, and fire could be seen as a rebirth, not death. In reversal, a certain flower could be seen as an insult to a character, instead of a gift (think Ophelia in Hamlet, with her giving of the flowers). In the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the Albatross is seen as a symbol of hope, life, and God, while the Raven in The Raven is interpreted as death, regret, and Satanic evil. The Albatross here is used as a symbol of hope, while the Raven is interpreted as a symbol of regret. In Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the shipmates were stuck in a sea of ice, after being blown there from a huge storm. They were slowly getting stuck within the ice, as they couldn’t move faster than the ice, and when the Albatross flew above them. â€Å"...round and round it flew. The ice did split with a thunder-fit;...†. After the Albatross arrived, all seemed to be getting better. The ship was able to drive right through ice, with no apparent ice blocking them. It all appeared to be miraculous, and gives them hope. In The Raven, however, the Raven appears when the narrator is taking aShow MoreRelatedThe Sonnet Form: William Shakespeare6305 Words   |  26 Pagesenjoyed a number of revivals and periods of renewed interest. In Elizabethan England—the era during which Shakespeare’s sonnets were written—the sonnet was the form of choice for lyric poets, particularly lyric poets seeking to engage with traditional themes of love and romance. (In addition to Shakespeare’s monumental sequence, the Astrophel and Stella sequence by Sir Philip Sydney stands as one of the most important sonnet sequences of this period.) Sonnets were also written during the height of classical