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In the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" the mariner kills the Albatross that had been a bird of good omen for the ship. For some critics who see in the mariner Coleridge himself, the Albatross represents one of Coleridge’s loves. And in the same way, in Oscar Wilde’s ballad the prisoner had killed the woman he loved and now is going to be punished. Also the mariner is punished: in fact he lives in a very hard adventure in the ocean and must travel continuously to tell his story. Another common element between the two ballads is the important presence of nature: while in the mariner, towards the end of the ballad, blesses the water snakes he sees, the prisoners seem to be very pleased when he looks at the sun and at the sky and when he breathes the air. They both have learnt to respect and appreciate nature.
The difference between the human justice and that of nature, that is divine, was already present in Coleridge. In "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", in fact, the rigging of the sailing ship, that is a human work, made the sun, that represented the divine justice, imprisoned, like in Wilde the bars obstruct the sight of the stars. So, even if the symbolic meaning of the contrast between the human work or human justice and the divine justice, represented by natural elements, is different, it is very important in both poems.
Death is a common theme between "The ballad of Reading Gaol" and Coleridge’s ballad. The prisoner is condemned to death penalty because of a previous homicide and this can be compared to the "Ancient Mariner"; but the redemption is different: in fact, while the mariner had to travel all around the world, telling his own story, searching for and explaining a sort of morality, learning to love all God’s creatures, the dead prisoner is raised over the material world indirectly, thanks to the other prisoners’ prayers.
Significant is the different behaviour of men shown to two guilty men: the mariner is initially justified by his shipmates for having killed "the bird that brought the fog and mist", making themselves accomplices in the crime, even if, when the weather changes into bad conditions, the sailors throw the guilt on the ancient mariner, hanging the dead seabird round his neck. The condemned prisoner is considered in the opposite way; he is sentenced by society for his crime, but at the end he is the object of the prayers of the prisoners. There’s also an analogy in the feelings (even if it isn’t directly felt by the prisoner, it’s reversed to the other men): the Sword of Sin that pierces the bodies ("for the blood we had not spilt") is the same the ancient mariner feels, for the sufferings he provokes in the sailors (when they die because of the thirst caused when the ship has been becalmed).
"Men knelt to pray who never prayed" is the exemplification in Wilde’s work of the ancient mariner, who, when he discovers the beauty of the water snakes, could finally pray.
In fact prayers are important in the two ballads because they’re the symbol of a changed consideration of human behaviour; and also men, guilty of horrible actions and homicides, feel the need to ask for help or speak with a transcendental being, God.
"The ballad of Reading Gaol" has some important similarities with the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" known very well by Wilde. The presence of supernatural events like death, fate, etc, is an important feature of the two poems. Even if an atmosphere of prison, fear, terror and death dominates the ballad, in "The rime of the Ancient Mariner" Coleridge writes: "we were a ghastly crew" and "the souls did from their bodies fly, they fled to bliss or woe! And every soul, it passed me by like the whizz of my cross-bow". In Coleridge’s poem the description of these ghostly aspects is very short and not analysed deeply while in the ballad Wilde describes every particular. There are also other similarities between the poems: from "The rime of the Ancient Mariner" as if through a "dungeon-grate", "the polar spirits fell on demons", "for a charnel-dungeon fitter", "the angelic spirits leave the dead bodies", "now like a lonely flute", "I heard the sky-lark sing".
There are evident references to the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", like the game of dice that is played between Death and Life-in-Death in the "Ancient Mariner" and between the spirits in "Reading Gaol"; the meaning of this game of dice has to be searched in the supernatural itself, something that the rational power of men cannot control: in this case the life of the men has been totally given into the hands of destiny and nobody can do anything to change it; this is also considered an elegant game that only lords play, because those men don’t refuse it pulling themselves back, they are not afraid of taking risks.
Stanza 53 and 54 have some references to the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" as well; the prayer (present in other parts of the ballad) is considered one of the last things a man can think of in life before turning to dust, a sort of last hope to change the already marked destiny, and in this part it is used to reinforce the meaning of living in jail. In the "Ancient Mariner", the spirit of the albatross has got both a negative and a positive connotation, because first it gives the mariner a curse then he forgives him.
Comparing the "Ballad of Reading Gaol" with the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" we can find the presence of the wind in both of them. But, while in the first one the wind helps the ship of the mariner go on, in the second the wind wanders around the sad wall of the prison. So, in the "Rime" the wind is seen as a positive natural event that makes the travel easier to the crew that justifies the presence of the good wind with the presence of the albatross. In the "Ballad of Reading Gaol" the wind is considered as a natural event that, with its sound, keeps company to the prisoners and Oscar Wilde asks the wind what they did to have that destiny. While the ancient mariner and his crew can see directly the natural things, Wilde says that he, seeing the shadow of the bars, can understand that somewhere in the world the sun, that is called God’s dreadful dawn, is red. This part explains how the prison is a place rich of sadness and where the freedom and the happiness of the common people can only be imagined. The atmosphere in both ballads before the death of the crew and of the prisoner becomes sad and fearful. In Coleridge’s ballad only the mariner is saved while the others die of thirst. In Wilde’s ballad, when the Lord of Death enters the prison to kill, a negative atmosphere of fear fills the prison.
As in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", a man that has killed another creature must be punished. But while in that ballad the Mariner has to pay a penance that will never end, in this one a murder is punished with another one. We can say how different the sense of Justice could be.
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