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, …showed first 75 words of 387 total…

…showed last 75 words of 387 total…the ship sinks. When the Pilot and his boy see the ship sinking, they go to retrieve the Mariner, just as angels retrieve a newly departed soul and carry it to Heaven. In conclusion, without the intricate symbolism presented in Rime of the Ancient Mariner, one is left with a meaningless children's story. By representing the aspects of salvation with concepts of the sea, Coleridge makes his message of repentance and humility easier to understand.