Today we began our study of a long narrative poem from the Romantic era, Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." To appreciate the influence of Christian theology ,we first read biographical material about the poet ,noting Coleridge's original intention to enter the Church. We further noted his close association with the poet,Wordsworth ,in a published collaboration that included this poem .More critically, we read material on Coleridge's theory of poetry that relies on the imagination and fantasy rather than logic to create a dimension of truth and beauty. We further studied literary terms applicable to the poem: alliteration, assonance , near rhyme, and internal rhyme. Using our analytical rubric, we studied the first stanzas and explored not only the use of these poetic devices, but further the use of a framework narrative. We discussed the function of a framework narrative in literature and poetry as uniting the reader and the framework narrator who recites a tale that is told by another character .