The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to row. The pilot's boy goes crazy and laughs, thinking the mariner is the devil, and cries, "The Devil knows how to row". As penance for shooting the albatross, the mariner, driven by guilt, is forced to wander the earth, telling his story over and over, and teaching a lesson to those he meets: After relaying the story, the mariner leaves, and the wedding guest returns home, and wakes the next morning "a sadder and a wiser man". The poem received mixed reviews from critics, and Coleridge was once told by the publisher that most of the book's sales were
The Destiny of Nations later expanded in his "Opus Maximum" project and was contained in other poems including "The Eolian Harp". Other connections to his works include the Greenland Wizard, which serves as a legendary precursor to Coleridge's mythical "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". The poem provides insight into what works Coleridge was relying on and would rely on again when he wrote "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". He makes these works clear in his footnotes, such as one from Crantz's "History of Greenland" Vol. I. Other footnotes refer to Lemius's "De Lapponibus" and the Book of Revelation. Other sources are the works