It has been suggested that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner can be read as a religious text, presenting "nothing but the fall of man". it has been interpreted in various ways since its creation in 1797. Some, such as Gavin McGann, argue that the ballad is a story of our salvation by Christ, while others dispute this, believing it to be a metaphor for original sin in the Garden of Eden. While these interpretations may differ, the idea that The Rima can be read as a religious text is not. Religion is at the heart of the poem, focusing on the trials and tribulations of man, describing a moving spiritual journey of sin, punishment, repentance and eventual redemption. In killing the albatross the sailor commits a terrible sin. The bird brought with it southerly winds to lead the lost ship out of Antarctica, after it was blown off course by a storm. By flying alongside the ship, the albatross only had the good intention of helping the ship get back on track. The sailor's sin is fundamentally unpremeditated and unfounded, and by committing a crime against nature, he essentially commits a crime against God, the creator of all nature and life. The punishment that the sailor will have to suffer following the unprovoked killing of the albatross is not unjustified. The crime arouses the wrath of supernatural spirits who then pursue the ship “from the land of fog and snow”; the south wind that initially led them out of the land... middle of paper... there is no doubt that it presents, through allegory, the spiritual regeneration of man. However, approaching the poem with a purely Christian interpretation in mind would be foolish as there are many respectable alternative interpretations, including Freudian and Jungian, which, while dissecting the poem in different ways, each have their own strengths. Thus, it is fair to say that the suggestion that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner can be interpreted as a “religious text” is true since a text can be interpreted in any way a reader wishes to see it. However to limit and confine poetry to this would be unfair, for a text can always be interpreted from many points of view, and it would be highly critical of Coleridge to conclude that, when he sat down to write The Ancient Mariner, he did so with the aim to simply create a religious tale.