loses the poem absolutely.
But the poem is more than a suspenseful story. It is poetically symbolic inasmuch as it is too complex to be merely a literal account of a historical action or even a narrative poem in the sense of, say, Evangeline. Rather, it takes the form of an extended lyrical ballad, and occurs within a frame of reference in which images playas dramatically on the poetic sensibility of the reader as they do on the Wedding Guest. The issue of the poetic climate of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is treated by Langer, who observes the ballad-like construction of the poem, referring to its "ballad spirit" (7: 270), in particular regarding Coleridge's use of the ballad convention of the mixture of tenses. This is an important point for the reason that it drives home the combination of the lyrical and ballad devices that are used to form the poem:
The first stanza is in the pure present; the second must be discounted, since it is direct discourse; the third, fourth, and fifth are mixed. Then begins the real story, in direct discourse, and
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