The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

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Why did the Ancient Mariner recount his voyage to the wedding guest?

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The Ancient Mariner recounts his voyage to the wedding guest as a form of penance for his past crime of killing the albatross. This act of storytelling is a recurring agony that he must endure to atone for his actions. By sharing his tale, he seeks to impart a moral lesson about respecting all of God's creations, warning others, like the wedding guest, against living selfishly and without regard for nature and humanity.

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At the end of part five, having suffered greatly for shooting the innocent albatross, the mariner hears two voices. The second voice says that the mariner "hath penance done, / And penance more will do." In other words, the mariner has suffered much already, but needs to suffer more before he can atone for his crime.

The nature of the suffering that the mariner must still undergo is revealed in part seven of the poem. The mariner begs a holy man to hear his confession and absolve him of his crime. The holy man agrees to listen, and as the mariner begins to tell his story his body is "wrenched / With a woeful agony, / Which force(s) (him) to begin (his) tale." Only when the mariner has finished his tale does this agony disappear.

However, the mariner then tells the wedding guest that this agony occasionally returns, "at an...

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uncertain hour," when he encounters another man who needs to hear the story. He says that each time he instinctively "know(s) the man that must hear" him." This time, it is the wedding guest. When he meets such men, the mariner is wracked with pain once more, and "till (his) ghastly tale is told, / (His) heart within (him) burns."

In other words, the further penance that the mariner must undergo to atone for his crime is to repeatedly tell his story to men who need to hear the warning. The implication is that the mariner recognizes in these men the same flaws (perhaps too much pride, or a lack of respect for all of God's creatures) that were in him, and that made him shoot the albatross. They are men, like the wedding guest, who need to learn the moral of the mariner's tale, which the mariner neatly summarizes at the end of the poem:

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

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Why must the sailor in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" tell his tale to guests?

In Part VII of the poem, the mariner demonstrates his purpose in recounting his melancholy tale--he wants to warn the wedding guest of living a life in pursuit of selfish goals without care for other humans or elements of nature. As an older man struggling with his isolated existence, the sailor longs to keep others from choosing his turbulent path. He tells the wedding guest:

"He prayeth well, who loveth well/ Both man and bird and beast. / He prayeth best, who loveth best / All things both great and small; / For the dear God who loveth us, / He made and loveth all" (Part VII, Stanzas 22-23).

His words illustrate his belief that humans must not only have a respect and appreciation for God in order to have fulfilling human relationships but that they must also respect all living creatures in order to live in harmony with others.

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