Ecological Vision in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'

The 250th anniversary of the birth of Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) was celebrated in 2022. In recent times, one of his most famous poems, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (initially published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1798), has gained increasing resonance as a proto-environmental text. It warns the reader, or listener (personified by the listener-within-the-poem, the Wedding Guest), that when humankind mistreats nature there are devastating consequences. In the age of the Anthropocene and the climate emergency, it is a poem that speaks to our time. This article considers this ecological interpretation of the text and its connection to other literary ‘texts’ across a range of media. It surveys how the poem’s semantic field, imagery and themes contribute to its meaning, and how contemporary readings show the impact of this context on its reception.