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Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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A new biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, shaped and structured around the story he himself tells in his most famous poem, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.

Though the 'Mariner' was written in 1797 when Coleridge was only twenty-five, it was an astonishingly prescient poem. As Coleridge himself came to realise much later, this tale - of a journey that starts in high hopes and good spirits, but leads to a profound encounter with human fallibility, darkness, alienation, loneliness and dread, before coming home to a renewal of faith and vocation - was to be the shape of his own life. In this rich new biography, academic, priest and poet Malcolm Guite draws out how with an uncanny clarity, image after image and event after event in the poem became emblems of what Coleridge was later to suffer and discover.

Of course 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is more than just an individual's story: it is also a profound exploration of the human condition and, as Coleridge says in his gloss, our 'loneliness and fixedness'. But the poem also offers hope, release, and recovery; and Guite also draws out the continuing relevance of Coleridge's life and writing to our own time.

471 pages, Hardcover

Published February 9, 2017

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Malcolm Guite

58 books291 followers

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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Toby.
668 reviews21 followers
May 19, 2017
I've got a bit of a soft-spot for Coleridge. Anyone who can yomp 263 miles over the highlands of Scotland in 8 days whilst struggling with an opiate addiction deserves serious respect.

Malcolm Guite does an excellent job in delineating the contours of Coleridge's life through the medium of his most famous poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - the story of which, Guite, sees as unconsciously prophesying the course of Coleridge's life. As a result we are taken far deeper into the poem than our school-days allowed as well as having Coleridge's complex personality and sad story unfolded to us. Guite, a Christian poet himself, is keen in all of this to ensure that Coleridge's deep faith is not air-brushed out of the picture and the Rime itself is seen as a deeply Christian poem with the Cross and Christ central to the Mariner's suffering and redemption. An essential read for anyone interested in the poet or the poem.
9 reviews2 followers
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March 13, 2017
While there is certainly no dearth of books about the great Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Malcolm Guite adds several new layers of insight which fill a gap in the existing scholarship. First of all, Guite reads Coleridge's life through the lens of his best-known poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and reads the "Mariner" through the lens of Coleridge's life. He argues persuasively that Coleridge wrote the poem as a young man, lived it until he grew older, and continued to re-write the poem (particularly by means of the later glosses) to bring the two experiences into harmony. Kierkegaard said that life can only be understood backwards yet must be lived forward. Guite helps to show how Coleridge did both.

Also, Guite brings to bear one of his own major concerns - the tragic Enlightenment split between reason and imagination - on the thought of Coleridge. In some ways, this book forms a companion volume to his earlier book, "Faith, Hope and Poetry." Those who find themselves disillusioned by the failed rationalist agenda of modernity will discover in Coleridge, as did many young poets of his own day, a guide and companion for the restoration of full humanity. I recall a college English professor who said that many critics have been baffled by the lines, near the end of the poem, "He prayeth best who loveth best/All things both great and small" "'Be kind to animals,'" the professor admitted, "seems like a disappointing moral to such a mighty tale." Guite manages to overcome this difficulty by showing that Coleridge's environmental concerns, far from being a sentimental add-on to the tale, inform his entire worldview and grow organically from the poem's deeper theme of spiritual harmony.

Finally, and in a way perhaps the most important achievement of the book, Guite "rehabilitates" Coleridge's Christianity. Coleridge, like his Mariner, did indeed return to his "own countree," and to the kirk. Like the mariner, he did not simply revert to a previous state, or regress to a simplistic faith, but brought his whole self, scarred but also deepened by his strange journey and tragic fall, home to Christ. Guite masterfully shows how this return, far from being a mere biographical curiosity, provides the key to reading the "Mariner," and the life of its author.

I will add a side-note: Like all of Guite's poetry, prose, and preaching, "Mariner" is both informative and generative - it gives rise to new thoughts for the reader. For instance, his insightful treatment of the dialogue between the two angelic voices, overheard by the prostrate mariner, led me back to the two voices who carry on a similar exchange, overheard by the title character, in Tolkien's enchanting novella, "Leaf by Niggle." Tolkien's protagonist has also sinned (though in a way perhaps more superficially venial), and been sent by his sin on a difficult quest, and finally reached a place of prostration on the very edge of healing. I found myself understanding Tolkien's story in a new and richer way, but also found Tolkien rewriting the "Mariner," giving shading and richness to Coleridge's original conception of the mutuality of grace and penance. The careful reader will discover many such gifts in these pages.

This book will be of value to scholars, but also to those who struggle in our turbulent times to make sense of their own fall and seek their own redemption. It is of especial value to those, like me, who have always loved the "Rime" without quite understanding why or how. I recommend it enthusiastically.
Profile Image for Tony.
214 reviews
June 21, 2020
Great book! A study of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner which is also a biography of the poet, an account of his struggles with life, the universe and everything (but especially his opium addiction), his survival, his genius, his return to Christian (and Church of England!) faith. Guite unfailingly sheds light on the poem and its creator, for whom this work of his youth proved to be prophetic of his whole life journey. In this bicentennial year of the poem's republication in 1817, this is a timely, lively and thought-provoking book. Especially in the light of the human predicament at the beginning of the 21st century, it helps us to see Coleridge as a Prophet for Our Time, challenging us to look for a re-sacralised world and relationship between humanity and all created things, which are reflections of the Imagination of the great I AM in whose image we are.

Read it and rejoice!
Profile Image for Scott Bielinski.
252 reviews20 followers
September 17, 2022
A wonderful book. Guite is an exceptional guide to an engrossing and (in Guite's exceptional analysis), ultimately, Christian poem about the heights and depths of the human soul in God's world. If Guite's reading is right (and I am convinced it is), the Rime of the Ancient Mariner belongs in the pantheon of brilliant Christian epic poems. What separates this poem, though, from, say, Paradise Lost, is that, per Guite's biographical work on Coleridge, this poem of creation, fall, and redemption is something that takes shape in Coleridge's own life, a nice and fitting analysis that nods towards Coleridge's deeply mimetic understanding of poetry, imagination, life, and, ultimately, God.

Profile Image for Josh Nisley.
11 reviews1 follower
January 30, 2024
I’ve been mildly put off by the Gothic weirdness of Coleridge’s Rime ever since high school. Guite almost single-handedly elevated the poem to my all-time top 10 list. His love for his subject is infectious—something I aspire to as a somewhat literary critic.
Profile Image for Kirk Manton.
Author 3 books3 followers
July 10, 2017
Wow,
What a full and compelling account of "The Ancient Mariner" and the dramatic and inspiring life of the author Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Poem, so prophetic of the author's life, so tragic and redemptive.

A true wake up call for our lives and culture today. And at the same time a comfort that we are not beyond the love of God and we are not alone in our struggles.

Thank you Malcolm
Profile Image for Ben Palpant.
Author 10 books43 followers
June 14, 2020
Lengthy, but well done. A careful and loving exploration of Coleridge’s life through the reading of his greatest work. Fascinating and enlightening for the mind and heart. Written with Guite’s characteristic enthusiasm and insightfulness.
Profile Image for Jon M..
8 reviews7 followers
September 7, 2017
Malcolm Guite is a poet, literary critic, song-writer, and Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge. He has published five slim volumes of his own poems with Canterbury Press since late 2012 that, I am told by the publisher, have sold more than 16,000 copies, making him in fact a “best-seller” among poets.
Guite begins Mariner explaining how Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (which he curiously styles as a book title, in italics, rather than as a poem, between quote marks) provides “a chart that maps both our souls and our world.” If that’s the case, the hefty 450 pages here are more than justified.
Guite builds his book on an idea more mystical than biographical that he argues comes from Coleridge’s poetics: “…great works of art and literature are, as it were, making room for our future insights, giving us the shapes, the stories, the images into which the undeveloped antennae of our inner life can grow.” Part 1 shows how Coleridge reflected his creation in real life. As literary critic, Guite demonstrates how “Rime” is a prescient work of art, prefiguring the wisdom that the mariner, Coleridge himself, would eventually come to grasp.
Writing next as a pastor, Guite demonstrates how “Rime” and its metaphorical journey is able to facilitate what he calls “a journey into the hidden life” for any reader today. Part 2 then takes the poem’s seven parts apart in detail.
This means that Mariner is not for everyone. It will appeal to readers with an interest in Coleridge (Guite is a serious and substantive critic, and there is more about Coleridge’s greatest poem here than in any work published in the last quarter century), but some of those will be disappointed by the Jungian undertones, and the self-help literature overtones. I imagine, more importantly, that Mariner may become a classic of Christian spirituality, a text for retreats, and if it does, will help resurrect Coleridge’s own reputation in that regard.
Profile Image for Peggy Drew.
5 reviews
June 22, 2017
Learned so much about Coleridge and his great poem ' The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner."
Guite's thesis is that the poem written by Coleridge in his 20's was prophetic about the course his own life would take. Each chapter was divided into the first half discussing a segment of the poem and the second half about the corresponding events in the poet's life over time. The description of Coleridge's struggle with opioid addiction was so sensitive and moving and insightful into an experience I don't know firsthand. Guite is an expert in understanding poetry and explaining it, and he is a marvelous writer of prose (and poetry himself). Of all the living authors I have read in the past couple years, Malcolm Guite is the one I would most like to have coffee with and talk about poetry and theology and life!
Profile Image for Phil.
193 reviews8 followers
February 4, 2018
I remember being a young teenager and having to tackle Coleridge’s Rime and absolutely hating it. Why did I hate it? Perhaps because I was too young for it

Coming to it some 60 years later with Malcolm Guite’s insightful comments, i was astounded by Coleridge’s imagination and vision

Moreover, I had inspired me to want to read more of STC’s works, as well as Wordsworth, and even his lifelong friend, Charles Lamb.

No exaggeration, Guite’s biography is one of the best books I have read. And discovering Guite’s gifts as a poet in his own right has been a bonus.

Profile Image for Sharon.
127 reviews4 followers
August 12, 2018
I think this book is itself a work of art on par with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. This book was my introduction to both Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his poetry. I liked it so much, I picked up more of Coleridge's work to read. I am grateful to Malcolm Guite for the wisdom and work he put into this book. I hope you will read it.
Profile Image for Julie.
336 reviews2 followers
December 27, 2023
Guite tells the story of Coleridge's life by drawing parallels to Coleridge's poem. His life and the mariner's voyage both include a spiritual journey. This book made me appreciate both the poet and the poem.
46 reviews
August 6, 2018
I read it in order to be able to more intelligently teach "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", but got so much more out of this deep reading of both the poem and of Coleridge's life and faith.
Profile Image for Robert.
Author 2 books3 followers
March 4, 2021
Like many, I first encountered the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in high school. And over the years I've quoted the lines "water water everywhere..." But, probably like most, I knew little about the poet behind the tale.

In "Mariner," poet, theologian and Cambridge University professor Malcom Guite, takes us on a voyage that both sheds light on the poem and poet, and how this enduring work of art is still as relevant today as it was when first written in the 18th Century.

"Mariner" is a must read.
Profile Image for Paul Goodwin.
14 reviews
May 18, 2023
What a treasure. Actually, three treasures - the poem itself, Coleridge and Guite too. I feel so enriched to have these three in my life (not least for Malcolm redeeming pipe smoking on his YouTube channel). The book itself, the analysis of the poem and the parallels with Coleridge’s own life, is an awesome prospect. The world is truly enchanted, Coleridge is certainly an archangel who sojourned here and weathered the storm of the enlightenment, so, there is hope we all can do too. Thank you Malcolm for doing this, I will go back to this and Coleridge in my mind regularly. ✌️❤️🙏
Profile Image for Chad Grissom.
37 reviews13 followers
June 30, 2020
This is undoubtedly the best book I have read all year. It will cement Coleridge into my short list for favorite authors. It is part biography, part close reading of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and part cultural criticism. Coleridge has a reputation for being a kind of proto-rockstar and hippie radical but this book makes clear that he was a Christian genius. It is amazing to me how much this book touches on contemporary issues; from environmental crises to addiction, Coleridge’s life and teaching have much to say to us. Through his return to Christian faith and an articulation of Christian view of the imagination, Coleridge saw all of life weaved together in the Logos, the Holy Imagination of God the Father.

Essentially, Guite argues that Coleridge came to understand the Rime as an unwitting prophecy of his own life. He wrote it as a young man and reading it in his later years he saw how it read his own life ahead of time. He suffered much from his own personal failings but saw this suffering as salutary. Guite blends interpretation of the text with a chronological treatment of Coleridge’s life. The result is something that transcends both biography and literary analysis.
231 reviews1 follower
December 8, 2023
How I adored this book! The voyage Malcolm takes you on through Coleridge's life while intertwining it with the meaning behind his poetry had me completely engrossed. The correlation and parallels he drew were marvelous. I was enthralled by this book and never anticipated that. Mariner joins the ranks of my lifetime favorite books.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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