Before we find an answer to this question, let's look at what traditional elements of crime writing are. First of all, the term "crime writing" encompasses a wide range of story possibilities. These include cozy crimes, which usually have a friendly protagonist and focus more on the intellectual solving of crimes; hard-boiled detective thrillers, which have hardened detectives with dubious backgrounds and a substantial amount of violence; courtroom dramas, which highlight court procedures to ascertain the guilt or innocence of suspects; capers, which are usually told from the criminal's point of view; and police procedurals, which focus on the investigation of police officers to solve crimes. There are other subcategories within these broad main types.
Most or all of these types of crime writing have several important elements in common. First, they must have a crime, often a murder, which initially seems unsolvable. Sometimes, though, the crime is solved in the beginning and the plot deals with other matters. Secondly, there must be an interesting protagonist, usually either a detective or policeman but sometimes an interesting civilian, who attempts to solve the mystery and as a result gets into dangerous situations. Thirdly, there must be unsavory characters involved. One or more of them committed the crime, and the others are suspects who turn out to be innocent. Finally, there must be danger and tension until the crime is solved and the criminal escapes or is brought to justice.
The famous poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge tells of a mariner who stops a wedding guest and tells him the story of a voyage he took to Antarctic waters. He shoots an albatross, and the crew is at first angry but then supports the crime. As a result, the ship and its crew are cursed. Everyone eventually dies except the mariner, who makes it back home but feels compelled to tell his story again and again to those who will listen.
This poem has few of the traditional elements of crime writing as delineated above. There is a crime in the killing of the albatross for which the entire crew suffers, but this is more of a crime against nature or God rather than other humans. There is an interesting protagonist, but he does not attempt to solve the crime or even absolve himself of it; when he is finally freed it is more by accident than intention. There are no other suspects. There is, however, rising danger and tension.
In conclusion, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" has few of the elements of traditional crime writing. Instead, because of the supernatural elements in it, it has more in common with fantasies or ghost stories.
The traditional elements of crime writing—an eerie setting, a terrible crime involving a death and a victim, vengeance, guilt, punishment, and a transgression against morals and/or laws can be applied to Coleridge’s famous long ballad. Indeed, the crime of the Mariner is so dreadful that it has disturbed the spirit world, which wreaks vengeance on him for shooting the sacred albatross, which can be viewed allegorically as a Christian soul. Pride, or "hubris," is the Mariner’s flaw, both in thinking he would escape punishment —even though he transgressed against the life force of the albatross—and in embarking on a voyage of discovery, which, in the 1790s, might have been seen as contrary to biblical teaching because of the sailors' attempt to "play God" by embarking on an over-ambitious expedition. The Mariner suffers guilt, as would be portrayed in a crime story, and learns a moral lesson, realizing that he has done a "hellish thing." Although there is no conventional "trial" of the Mariner, the spirit voices act as judges and represent the Mariner’s own guilt.
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