coleridge poem the rime of the ancient mariner

John Polidori’s 1819 tale The Vampyre contains a warning for “murder”, while William Godwin’s 1794 book Caleb Williams tells students it contains a “threat of rape”.

Mary Shelley’s short stories On Ghosts and The Mortal Immortal come with a warning for references to suicide, and Lord Byron’s 1813 poem The Giaour, about the murder of a concubine, has been given a content advisory for violence and murder. Other works taught in The Literature of the Gothic module have also been given warnings. These supernatural elements may be upsetting to students, according to the content warnings, along with themes in numerous works of gothic literature - which is defined by its focus on the macabre. The possessed crew then begin sailing the ship to safety. Later in the poem, the curse is lifted and “Beneath the lightning and the Moon/The dead men gave a groan”. The crew, succumbing to dehydration, then “dropped down one by one”. The offending stanza, the content warning suggests, reads: “‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!/From the fiends, that plague thee thus!/Why look’st thou so?’-With my cross-bow/I shot the ALBATROSS.” The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, famous for the lines “water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”, centres on an old sailor telling a stunned wedding guest about a voyage during which he shot an albatross. The poem, which hinges on the eponymous mariner shooting an albatross, now requires a content warning for depicting “animal death”, according to academics at the London university’s English department.Ĭoleridge’s tale of a cursed voyage has also been marked for “supernatural possession” and “human death”, common themes in gothic literature. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 masterpiece, charting the eerie adventures of a sailor, has been deemed potentially upsetting for students at the University of Greenwich. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner has been given a trigger warning by academics for depicting the death of an albatross.

Coleridge poem the rime of the ancient mariner