The Echo of a Century: Coleridge’s Perception of Nature in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Modern Ecological Studies

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the relationship between man and nature as portrayed in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In the narrative poem, his unique views on Nature present a remote echo to today’s ecological concerns and scientific efforts to improve our ecosystem. The current study explores the implied ideas of Coleridge’s poetical manifestation and contemporary activists’ environmental consciousness so as to join the increasingly important discussion of how human beings adapt a reasonable pace to relieve some of the unbearable burden they have exerted on the Earth at an unprecedented speed and in a large scale. Such analytic attempts focus mainly on the critical connection between natural ecology and spiritual ecology. When understanding sustainable development at both the natural and spiritual levels, mankind may find real motivations to respect and protect Nature, and live in harmony with Nature.