The Ancient Mariner's Foolish Act

“God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look’st thou so?”---- With my crossbow
I shot the ALBATROSS.(lines 79-82)
In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the ancient mariner received a never-ending penance for his sin. After killing the albatross with his crossbow, a skeleton ship floated on the water unaided by wind with two shipmates aboard, Death and Life-in-Death. The two shipmates were casting dice for the ancient mariner and his crew’s lives. Life-in-Death won the life of the ancient mariner and he was left all alone aboard his ship. The ancient mariner’s foolish act caused him to lose his crew and a life filled with grief and loneliness.
When the ancient mariner killed the albatross everything seemed to go downhill. The fair breeze that once blew when the albatross was there had suddenly disappeared. However, the crew did find something good from killing the albatross, the fog a...