woman with red lips golden hair and pale diseased-looking skin She is described as terrifying like a nightmare The mariner describes The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she They play dice for the Mariner s soul Life-in-Death wins which means he must suffer instead of dying Again when the Mariner s suffering begins to end the dead sailors come back to life They all rise It had been strange even in a dream To have seen those dead men rise Their bodies are controlled by spirits and they drive the ship The fact that this ancient Mariner cannot die is also supernatural He is burdened to wander the earth and tell his story again and again Coleridge uses supernaturalism to make the poem more thrilling and meaningful The supernatural events teach a moral lesson love all creatures of God no matter how great or small slimy The mix of real and unreal in the poem keeps readers engaged and makes the story feel powerful and magical