The Rime of the Ancient Mariner a salvation story. The poem's structure is multi-layered text based on Coleridge's interest in Higher Criticism. "Like the Iliad or Paradise Lost or any great historical product, the "Rime" is a work of transhistorical rather than so-called universal significance. This verbal distinction is important because it calls attention to a real one. Like The Divine Comedy or any other poem, the "Rime" is not valued or used always or everywhere or by everyone in the same way or for the same reasons." George Whalley, in his 1946–47 essay, "The Mariner and the Albatross", suggests that the Ancient Mariner is an
The Book of Souls subject of particular praise, with PopMatters calling it a "masterpiece" and "every bit as spellbinding as 1984's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' [from 1984's "Powerslave"]". AllMusic described it as "a heavy metal suite, unlike anything in their catalogue". Although Blabbermouth.net and "NME" did not agree that it matches "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", the former stated that it is "worth every single minute as a cinematic-sounding encapsulation of the band's career", while the latter called it "the pièce-de-résistance". It also received a positive response from "Classic Rock", who deemed it a "stunning piece of work", while "Billboard" labelled it "a