The Rime of the Ancient Mariner stage of the mariner's curse is lifted after he appreciates the sea creatures swimming in the water. Despite his cursing them as "slimy things" earlier in the poem, he suddenly sees their true beauty and blesses them ("a spring of love gush'd from my heart, and I bless'd them unaware"); suddenly, as he manages to pray, the albatross falls from his neck and his guilt is partially expiated. The bodies of the crew, possessed by good spirits, rise again and help steer the ship. In a trance, the mariner hears two spirits discussing his voyage and penance, and learns that
Coleridge Cottage As well as writing poetry he was a literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. It was while he was living in Nether Stowey that Coleridge wrote "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison", "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", part of "Christabel", and "Frost at Midnight". While writing "Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment", Coleridge was said to have been interrupted by the arrival of a "Person from Porlock". It is unclear whether this really happened or was