Rime of the Ancient Mariner Humans are naturally very attached to their own personal religion, imagination, and individualism. Today, the freedom to think and speak for oneself is a common notion. In Europe at the end of the 18th century, freedom of thought was not as easy for citizens. Artists express feelings and emotions through their art and for Samuel Taylor Coleridge, his poems illustrate what some people of his time were afraid to say. During the Romantic era, where imagination and nature were emphasized, Samuel Coleridge used his poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner to reflect his religiously based ideas through symbols and poetry. The importance of religion during the Romantic period was enormous. People of this era often turned to religion when faced with inexplicable events. In an academic review examining Coleridge's poem, Christopher Stokes says, "(The poem) focuses on the irrational moral order presented in the poem and its basis in the Christian doctrine of original sin" (Stokes 1). Coleridge's work is essentially a great prayer for the sailor to learn through experience during his voyage. At the start of Part 3, the Mariner couldn't speak because he was so thirsty. The inability to speak comes from the punishment the sailor received for his actions or, from the Christian perspective, for his sins. In addition to speaking, the Mariner was also cursed to lose the ability to pray. The Mariner had to deal with the lack of water in the poem. The sailor was forced to find a way out of the drought when he said: "With throats unconstricted, lips black baked,/ We could neither laugh nor moan;/ During the utter drought we remained dumb!/ I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,/ And I shouted: A sail! a sail! (Co...... middle of article ...... Quoted Al-Rashid, Amer HM "Between flux and fixity: negotiations of space in The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Communication Intercultural 7.3 (2011): 59-71. Academic Search Premier. Greenblatt, gen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. European Romantic Review 24.2 (2013): 185-210. Academic Search Premier April 21, 2014. Smith, C U. "Coleridge's Theory of Life." Journal Of The History Of Biology 32.1 (1999): 31-50. MEDLINE. Web. April 21, 2014. Stokes, Christopher. “My Soul in Agony: Irrationality and Christianity in the Age of the Ancient Mariner” Studies In Romanticism 50.1 (2011): 3-28. Academic Search Premier. Web April 21... 2014.