Flannan isle is not similar in this way as it is a lot like a typical ballad as it is telling a story but is not very descriptive about what is happening a lot like early ballad styles possibly to hide the fact it is relatively new.
The rime of the ancient mariner is written in the first person narrative
Why look’st thou so; - “with my cross-bow
I shot the albatross.
Line 82 rime of the ancient mariner
This give the poem a more personal fell and so the emotions in the poem become the reader’s own personal feelings. Also the poem being written in the first person gives it a more vivid picture of what is happening in the ballad.
Flannan isle is written in the third person so in that sense it is more like someone telling you a story about what happened so yet again this is similar to an early style balled.
In the rime of the ancient mariner the is a strong idea of crime and punishment as the albatross is a "pious bird of good omen”; the mariner kills it for no reason
(Most readers in 1798, would see nothing wrong In a man killing a bird); at first his fellow sailors blame him, then when the fog goes they approve of his action when they are becalmed they change their minds again and blame him, hanging the dead bird around his neck;
Ah wretch! Said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!
And then
Taws right said they, such birds to slay
That bring the fog and mist.
And latter on
Instead of a cross, the albatross
About my neck was hung.
Rime of the ancient mariner line 95-96,101-102,147-148
This is a very two faced and would set an almost angry
Mood with the reader or annoyed with the other sailors who cheered him but as soon
As things get worse they blamed him. Death and Life-in-Death dice for the crew and the life-in-death wins the mariner; when he returns to land, he finds he has to tell his tale; He ends his narrative by reminding the wedding guest of the need to love "man and bird and beast"; in the poem, the Polar Spirit is said to love the albatross, and two other spirits discuss the mariner's almost like in a court of chance will the mariner die or will he life? I feel the reason that the author did not let the mariner die as it was a lesson almost that because he killed the bird he then had to go around telling his story to the world about how you should love all Creature’s man and beast.
Flannan isle had not such a theme to it had more of a supernatural fell to it like when the first people to notice that the men were gone arrived on the island they saw
Three queer black ugly birds
Flannan isle line 24
Which the poet quotes as,
Too big by far in my belief
For Cormorant or shag.
Flannan isle line 25-26
The poet then goes on to say
Like seaman sitting bolt upright
Flannan isle line 27
This is the first sign of the supernatural in Flannan isle although the poet never actually says that the might be the missing lighthouse keepers he does hits strongly towards this raising superstition in the readers mind.
The supernatural also appears in the rime of the ancient mariner in the shape of the albatross and how when he kills it the weather changes to the benefit this also adds a sort of errey mood to the poem as it leaves the reader wondering whether it was because the man killed the albatross that all the strange events accrued or was it just purely coincidental
Coleridge uses very powerful imagery in his poem such as
“And the bay was white with silent light”
The rime of the ancient mariner page 73
Verse 5
Line 1
This gives the reader a good description of what the bay was like when they returned he says it is white with silent like lit this is very descriptive as he says silent this is a soft sound and so it gives a very calm image of the bay in the white light of the moon.
Flannan isle also uses very powerful images one of the powerful images is that of when the men were listening for the missing men
We listened, but we only heard
The feeble cheeping of a bird
Flannan isle line66-67
This sets a very sad image as he says they hear a feeble cheeping of a bird, the cheeping of a bird is normally associated with happiness and the author relating it with saddens makes a big impact on the reader emotionally. In Flannan isle the poet also uses an ABCB rhyming Scheme, which gives the poem a rhythm and so is easier to follow and so the story gets across better.
