comment on the opinion that Coleridge's The Rime of te Ancient Mariner is a symbolic presentation of the world and mans relation to it.

When the Mariner kills the albatross, he disrupts the balance between man and nature. Nature attacks him and his shipmates until the Mariner blesses the water snakes. The fact that the Mariner has to do penance for the rest of his life demonstrates that he must work diligently to bring nature and man back "in sync" with one another. There is no question that the lesson at the end that we must love "all creatures great and small" is important because the God who created them also created us.