This paper compares T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land with Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” to analyze the relationship between humans and nature, civilization and ecology from the perspective of marine ecological literature. Eliot reveals the desolation of modern civilization and the lack of salvation through the myth of the Fisher King, and symbolizes the inner emptiness and longing for recovery through the images of the sea and fishermen. The Waste Land, which reconstructs various mythological texts, suggests the possibility of salvation, but induces readers’ reflection without a clear conclusion. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” shows the ecological responsibility of humans through the old mariner’s journey of atonement for killing an albatross. The images of the pilot and the water snakes symbolize the restoration of the relationship with nature, and suggest that reverence for life is the key and ecotone to restoration. Both poems explore the interaction between humans and nature against the backdrop of the ocean, and suggest the possibility of transformation through the guide known as the “pilot.” Through this, the two poets provide literary and philosophical insights that are valid in the era of ecological crisis.
Kim et al. (Thu,) studied this question.