Rational Romanticism: AI-Inspired Analysis of Logical Equilibrium in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Abstract

In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge shows how the fundamental balance among Reason, Spirit, and Nature can be broken and gradually restored. After killing the Albatross, the Sailor suffers deep guilt and learns, through his suffering and his reflection, that only sensitivity, reflection, and respect for nature allow us to find inner harmony. The present paper aims to explore the dynamic interaction among the three fundamental components of the poem: Reason, Spirit, and Nature. The study adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining traditional literary analysis with quantitative techniques inspired by artificial intelligence to explore the dynamic modalities of human equilibrium in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's work and to highlight the interaction among Raison, Spirit, and Nature through the poem's narrative progression from the initial transgression to the final reconciliation. The analysis reveals that at the beginning of the story, the imbalance is mainly attributable to Reason (around 70%), marking a failure of judgment. During the “Curse” section, however, the crisis shifts, and the Spirit and Nature components dominate, reaching up to 85% of the disorder, illustrating the environment's emotional horror and hostility. These observations confirm that human balance is restored only when Reason, Spirit, and Nature progress together, a dynamic that detailed studies can follow with notable precision (up to 90%), as validated by adjustment measures such as R², RMSE, and MAE.