<P> On a surface level the poem explores a violation of nature and the resulting psychological effects on the mariner and on all those who hear him . According to Jerome McGann the poem is like a salvation story . The poem 's structure is multi-layered text based on Coleridge 's interest in Higher Criticism . `` Like the Iliad or Paradise Lost or any great historical product , the Rime is a work of transhistorical rather than so - called universal significance . This verbal distinction is important because it calls attention to a real one . Like The Divine Comedy or any other poem , the Rime is not valued or used always or everywhere or by everyone in the same way or for the same reasons . '' </P>
what is the central idea of the poem the rime of ancient mariner
a violation of nature and the resulting psychological effects on the mariner and on all those who hear him