Annotated Ancient Mariner: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Note how the last two lines make it clear that the blessing of the snakes does not spring from the Mariner’s own will; he is responding, unaware, to promptings from above. “This act of blessing does not win God’s grace,” writes R. L. Brett (Reason and Imagination, 1960); “it is God’s grace.”