The Rime of the Ancient Mariner that the poem may have been inspired by the voyage of Thomas James into the Arctic. According to William Wordsworth, the poem was inspired while Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Wordsworth's sister Dorothy were on a walking tour through the Quantock Hills in Somerset. The discussion had turned to a book that Wordsworth was reading, "A Voyage Round The World by Way of the Great South Sea" (1726) by Captain George Shelvocke. In the book, a melancholy sailor, Simon Hatley, shoots a black albatross: As they discussed Shelvocke's book, Wordsworth proffers the following developmental critique to Coleridge, which importantly contains a reference
The Pardoner's Tale roam the Earth until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. One may compare this notion to the symbol and character of the Old Man in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. "The Pardoner's Tale" finds itself widely debated among those in the literary world. The question of Chaucer's motivation in writing the tale, as well as potential social comments made within it, have been the subject of controversy concerning "The Canterbury Tales". Gregory W. Gross, as dictated in Modern Language Studies, concludes that The Pardoner finds himself publicly shamed by the Host's reprimand at the end