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 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