Themes: The Power of Prayer
The ability to pray is an indication of the state of the mariner’s mind and soul—and how dire his situation is—at any given point in the poem. In part 4, when he looks around him and sees nothing but corruption, both at sea and on deck, the mariner says,
I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
But or ever a prayer had gusht,
A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.
This is a pattern: whenever the mariner is at his lowest ebb, he cannot even take comfort in prayer. In part 4, it is his blessing of the sea snakes, as his heart fills with love for their beauty, that restores to him the power of prayer. As he prays, the weight of the albatross falls from his neck, and the ability to sleep rapidly follows. Then it rains, giving the mariner the drinkable water he so desperately craves. All good things, it seems, follow prayer. However, there is no indication that the prayer itself is petitionary. The mariner does not seem to have prayed for sleep or water. The power of prayer lies in the way it quiets the soul, and the good things that follow seem to do so naturally.
The curse in the dead men’s eyes later robs the mariner of his ability to pray again, but he manages to regain it, and he ends his tale by telling the wedding guest of the comfort it gives him to go to church and pray among his fellow men. The mariner’s final maxim, “He prayeth best that loveth best,” suggests that prayer, like love, must be constantly renewed and expressed. The comfort it brings is temporary, yet powerful—which is why the mariner, like the hermit, becomes a man who prays often.
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