How is the theme of "liminality" shown throughout Coleridge's epic poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

"Liminality" is described very much like a philosophical
"rite of passage:"

readability="5">

...being on the "threshold" of or between two
different existential
planes...

In Coleridge's
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, this concept can be seen in
several ways. It is important to remember that as a Romantic writer, Coleridge stressed
(among other things in this epic poem) a return to nature—having a respect for
nature.

The mariner who narrates the story of his strange,
heart-wrenching and life-altering experiences at sea stands several times on a
"threshold" between one "plane" and another. We see it when he chooses to sacrifice the
peace and happiness he has known when he kills the albatross; when his fate is in the
balance, pulled between life and death; and, later as he moves from a place of ignorance
and disregard for nature, to an enlightened existence that honors nature, though he
still suffers for his lack of respect
earlier.

The mariner tells of sailing on a ship which is
accompanied by an albatross—a large sea bird.

readability="12">

At length did cross an
Albatross:

Thorough the fog it
came;

As if it had been a Christian
soul,

We hailed it in God's name.
(62-65)

But one day, the
mariner shoots the bird with his bow—for no good reason. This changes his luck and that
of all the members of the crew:

readability="5">

...With my
cross-bow

I shot the Albatross.
(80-81)

Soon the weather
changes, and conditions on the ship become dire, especially due to a lack of water—hence
the following famous lines:

readability="17">

Water, water, every
where,

And all the boards did
shrink;

Water, water, every
where,

Nor any drop to drink.
(116-119)

It is at this point
that the ship's crew punishes the mariner by hanging the dead albatross around his neck.
As things grow worse, the men see a sail, but it is a ghost ship. (This represents an
element of the supernatural in the story.) It is here that Death
and Life-in-Death throw dice to see who will win the souls of which
sailors. Life-in-Death "wins" the mariner. This is another
threshold on which the mariner stands—between living and dying. While the others die,
he is spared.

readability="15">

The Night-Mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was
she,

Who thicks man's blood with
cold.

The naked hulk alongside
came,

And the twain were casting
dice;

“The game is done! I've won! I've won!”
(190-194)

The mariner stands
on the brink of the last threshold for some time. He watches as each of the two hundred
other sailors drops dead on the deck, including his own nephew. The mariner is becalmed
on the ship—with no water—and with all his dead shipmates. However, the mariner begins
to watch the creatures in the sea, and in the moment he blesses them, he is able to
pray; the bird falls from around his neck; the winds pick up; and, it begins to
rain.

Beyond
the shadow of the ship...

I watched the
water-snakes… (269-270)

O happy living things! no
tongue

Their beauty might
declare:

A spring of love gushed from my
heart,

And I blessed them
unaware…

The selfsame moment I could pray...
(279-285)

Though the mariner
is eventually saved (when beings of light—angels?—inhabit the dead sailors and they all
sail the ship home), the mariner's punishment continues—even as he has crossed this last
"threshold" into an awareness of the beauty of nature: for as long as he lives, whenever
he meets someone who is as he once was, his heart "burns" in his
chest until he call tell his story, to change the heart of
another.