No rime or reason

‘With my cross-bow / I shot the albatross.” Those reading English at the University of Greenwich might be so appalled by these words that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner now comes with a trigger warning. Students are advised that if they choose a module on the “Literature of the Gothic” they will encounter – alongside “human death” and “supernatural possession” (these two rather go with the territory) – “animal death”. Let us hope such innocents are never unfortunate enough to stray into a butcher’s shop. If the fear is that these words might corrupt young minds, the fate that befalls Coleridge’s mariner and his crew are not exactly a paean to the benefits of killing seabirds. Universities should challenge, not mollycoddle, their charges. A generation fearful of our literary canon will be an albatross around all our necks.