Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s  “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a prime example of the need to engage in suspension of disbelief in order to best understand the meaning and purpose of pieces of literature, particularly works that share the structure and themes of the Romantic period. Willing suspension of disbelief is best defined as “the temporary acceptance as believable of events or characters that would ordinarily be seen as incredible. This is usually to allow an audience to appreciate works of literature or drama that are exploring unusual ideas” (The Phrase Finder). It is important to note that suspension of disbelief was a crucial element of Coleridge’s work, and the Romantic period represented a movement away from the mostly logical and rational literature of the Enlightenment. For most readers of the time, suspension of disbelief would have been a new and unfamiliar practice.

In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Coleridge uses the character of the wedding guest to imply that suspension of disbelief requires a kind of childlike acceptance of fantastical elements: “He holds him with his glittering eye— / The Wedding-Guest stood still, / And listens like a three years' child: / The Mariner hath his will.” There is thus a fascinating aspect to literature that requires suspension of disbelief, which in turn requires that one momentarily forfeit their hold on the laws of physics and customary workings of the world.

Another important example of suspension of disbelief is found in the albatross. This bird is only mentioned by name seven times in the poem, but its death is a driving force in the narrative. The mariner is cursed because he shot the innocent albatross, and for a long while he is forced to have the bird hang around his neck as a sign of guilt and a picture of the curse he brought upon the ship’s journey: “ ‘God save thee, ancient Mariner! / From the fiends, that plague thee thus!— / Why look'st thou so?’—With my cross-bow / I shot the ALBATROSS.”

The concept of a ghost ship and death personified also requires suspension of disbelief:

Are those her ribs through which the Sun
Did peer, as through a grate?
And is that Woman all her crew?
Is that a DEATH? and are there two?
Is DEATH that woman's mate?
 
Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.

A purely rational and logical mindset would dismiss such images and ideas, but suspension of disbelief gives the reader the freedom to see the literary concept being communicated. The personification of death and “Life-In-Death” is a vehicle by which Coleridge communicates the supreme value of all life and the utterly dark experience of the mariner following his decision to kill the albatross. Along with the value of life, Coleridge attempts to poetically communicate people’s fickle attachment to symbols of good or bad fortune, as seen in the sailors’ opinions on whether or not it was a good thing the mariner shot the bird. Such elements of the human experience and perspectives on life and death almost assuredly cannot be communicated effectively unless the reader engages in willing suspension of disbelief.

Does Coleridge achieve "willing suspension of disbelief" in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

Whether Samuel Taylor Coleridge was successful in compelling the reader to suspend disbelief while reading his scary sea poem is up to the reader, which, in this case, is you.

However, we can give you some ways to think about whether Coleridge succeeded, failed, or did a little bit of both.

First, let's clarify Colerdige's statement regarding "suspension of disbelief." He makes the statement in a book of his, called Biographia Literaria. This work consists of his thoughts on poetry and literature, with some autobiographical elements scattered in.

One of his thoughts involves "suspension of disbelief." According to Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was one of his attempts to create

persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.

We might say that "suspension of disbelief" requires a balance of what we normally identify as human and what we normally identify as non-human, otherworldly, or—to use Coleridge's term—"supernatural."

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" starts in a human way. Remember, it starts with the mariner telling another person a story. People tell people stories all the time. As the story progresses, things get eerie. There's mist, snow, and ice "as green as emerald." The weather is bad. That's not really supernatural, though bad weather can have a ghostly, mysterious character. Then the Mariner kills the albatross. This, too, isn't exactly supernatural. For multiple reasons—some good, some bad—people tend to kill animals.

After the death of the albatross, odious things start to happen. The sailors have bad dreams, they become terribly thirsty, and they meet Death and Life-in-Death on another ship. This seems like the moment we are asked to suspend disbelief. We have to believe that dead sailors can be turned into angels and that a ship can be moved by nothing but a spirit.

If you ask us, we believe it. We think Coleridge did a good job of laying enough human groundwork to pull off the supernatural elements that come later. Of course, you're entitled to think otherwise.

Maybe Coleridge gets carried away not with the supernatural but with the Mariner's religious fervor. Of all the parts of the poem, might the Mariner's religious awakening be the most unbelievable? Is there not something formulaic about it?

Keep in mind, Coleridge talks about a "semblance of truth." Does the Mariner's religious turn seem true to you, or does it feel more like Coleridge is trying to force a moral or lesson into his poem?