Symbol Analysis
The importance of colors in this poem goes along with the interest in the supernatural (see below) and specific patterns of images like the moon and sun (see above). However, there's so much "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds"-type craziness going on with sea snakes and angels and ice that we just wanted to point it out to y'all.
- Part I.Stanza 13: The icebergs in the Antarctic Ocean are compared to the green color of an emerald (simile). The color green is the ocean's "normal" color in this poem.
- II.31: The water begins to turn strange colors at night after the albatross has been killed. These supernatural green, blue, and white lights are compared in a simile to "witch's oils," which are used for spells and enchantments
- IV.62: After the crew dies, the water turns red in the shadow of the ship.
- IV.63-64: The water snakes leave a white light in their wake that looks like "flakes" of frost. The same light is compared using metaphor to "golden fire" in stanza 64.
- V.72: The reanimation of the bodies of the dead sailors is accompanied by a show of the Aurora Borealis and other colorful lights.
- VI.111-113: You thought we were done with crazy lights just because the Mariner made it back to the northern port? The last supernatural image is of the white moonlight and the blood red "crimson" angels.