Colridge In Popular Culture

      

       Instead of writting a three hundred and fifty word blog post on the deeper meanings of a, well, confusing and rather lengthy poem I decided to show how poetry can be fun! Yes, it is possible. Its interesting how many times refferences to Coleridge's 'The Rime of The Ancient Mariner' appear in popular culture.

       I'll begin with the most popular, Vampires. In Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire a small girl (just turned to a vampire) quotes the poem saying: "Her lips were red, her looks were free, Her locks were yellow as gold: Her skin was white as leprosy, The Night-mare Life-in-Death was she, who thicks man's blood with cold." Creepy coming from a small child/vampire. From the books that the Trueblood series is based off of, Club Dead contains the quote "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink" when a women is reffering to the fact she is surrounded by very handsome, but homosexual men. Creepier than the vampire-child.

       In Mary Shelly's (yes, she is related to Percy Shelly) book Frankenstein the two have many similarites. In Pirates of the Carribean Calipso and Davy Jone's crew play the game of dice, like the dice game in the poem between Death and his mate. In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Willy Wonka changes the quote saying "Bubbles, bubbles everywhere, nor any drop to drink.. yet." See what I mean? Its such a wide variety of television shows, movies, and books that use quotes from famous poetry.

       Wizard of Oz, the Wizard says to the Scare crow "Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain!" In The Simpsons, Homer is stranded at sea and is told to preserve thier water supply, he retorts: "What do you think we're floating on? Don't you know the poem? 'Water, water, everywhere, so let's all have a drink.'" A trainer recites the opening stanza of the poem to her Raichu in an episode of Pokemon. In Cast away, Sex and the City, The OC, even a basball pitcher for the Seattle Mariners, at the age of 40, was nick named "The Ancient Mariner". In conclusion, watch out, in your favorite television show there might be a refference to a famous poem, if your not careful you might learn something about literature while trying to watch Jersey Shore!

By Kerri Peetz