The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is following me everywhere!

So, I start reading Frankenstein, and what do I see on the bottom of page 21?

"I am going to unexplored regions to 'the land of mist and snow'; but I shall kill no albatross, therefore do not be alarmed for my safety, or if I should come back to you as worn and woeful as the 'Ancient Mariner'. You will smile at my allusion; but I will disclose a secret. I have often attributed my attachment to, my passionate enthusiasm for the dangerous mysteries of ocean, to the production of the most imaginative of modern poets."

My comments:

1. Some "allusion" this is! Did the narrator want to be any more explicit in which poem he was referencing?
2. The word "modern" in the last sentence is just further proof that 200 years ago didn't seem like 200 years ago back then, it seemed modern. According to the appendix of Frankenstein, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was written in 1798. Frankenstein was written in 1818.