why is the peom ancient mariner important to walton?

The Ancient Mariner's trip was to the polar regions, just as Walton's trip. In fact, it was the"polar gods" who punished the mariner for killing the albatross. The reason they were so angry is that the mariner showed a total disrespect for nature. In his own way, Walton shows disrespect for nature by insisting his ship stay stuck in the polar ice because he is so obsessed with getting to the North Pole. When he finds Victor, he discovers that Victor is determined to tell his tale just as the mariner is forced to tell his tale over and over. Victor, however, knows he is dying, so he desperately wants Walton to remember his story and warn others of its consequences. This parallels the warnings of the mariner to the wedding guest. Fortunately, Walton does learn from Victor and the monster and eventually decides to row out of the ice.

Weather slows the beginning of the trip, but Walton reassures his sister that he will use caution and prudence. He alludes to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. This one poem helped launch the Romantic period and gives us a story of a man banished for killing an albatross while at sea. The poem is an extended allegory symbolizing the death of imagination in man and an embarkment on a quest for spiritual and intellectual knowledge. Coleridge, a Romantic writer, was a friend of Mary Shelley's father.