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Thread: So Good It Deserves Its Own Thread

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    So Good It Deserves Its Own Thread

    First, the original poem:

    The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    Part I

    It is an ancient Mariner,
    And he stoppeth one of three.
    `By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
    Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

    The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
    And I am next of kin;
    The guests are met, the feast is set:
    Mayst hear the merry din.'

    He holds him with his skinny hand,
    "There was a ship," quoth he.
    `Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!'
    Eftsoons his hand dropped he.

    He holds him with his glittering eye -
    The Wedding-Guest stood still,
    And listens like a three years' child:
    The Mariner hath his will.

    The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
    He cannot choose but hear;
    And thus spake on that ancient man,
    The bright-eyed Mariner.

    "The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
    Merrily did we drop
    Below the kirk, below the hill,
    Below the lighthouse top.

    The sun came up upon the left,
    Out of the sea came he!
    And he shone bright, and on the right
    Went down into the sea.

    Higher and higher every day,
    Till over the mast at noon -"
    The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
    For he heard the loud bassoon.

    The bride hath paced into the hall,
    Red as a rose is she;
    Nodding their heads before her goes
    The merry minstrelsy.

    The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
    Yet he cannot choose but hear;
    And thus spake on that ancient man,
    The bright-eyed Mariner.

    "And now the storm-blast came, and he
    Was tyrannous and strong:
    He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
    And chased us south along.

    With sloping masts and dipping prow,
    As who pursued with yell and blow
    Still treads the shadow of his foe,
    And foward bends his head,
    The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
    And southward aye we fled.

    And now there came both mist and snow,
    And it grew wondrous cold:
    And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
    As green as emerald.

    And through the drifts the snowy clifts
    Did send a dismal sheen:
    Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken -
    The ice was all between.

    The ice was here, the ice was there,
    The ice was all around:
    It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
    Like noises in a swound!

    At length did cross an Albatross,
    Thorough the fog it came;
    As it had been a Christian soul,
    We hailed it in God's name.

    It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
    And round and round it flew.
    The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
    The helmsman steered us through!

    And a good south wind sprung up behind;
    The Albatross did follow,
    And every day, for food or play,
    Came to the mariner's hollo!

    In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
    It perched for vespers nine;
    Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
    Glimmered the white moonshine."

    `God save thee, ancient Mariner,
    From the fiends that plague thee thus! -
    Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
    I shot the Albatross."


    Part II

    "The sun now rose upon the right:
    Out of the sea came he,
    Still hid in mist, and on the left
    Went down into the sea.

    And the good south wind still blew behind,
    But no sweet bird did follow,
    Nor any day for food or play
    Came to the mariners' hollo!

    And I had done a hellish thing,
    And it would work 'em woe:
    For all averred, I had killed the bird
    That made the breeze to blow.
    Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
    That made the breeze to blow!

    Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
    The glorious sun uprist:
    Then all averred, I had killed the bird
    That brought the fog and mist.
    'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
    That bring the fog and mist.

    The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
    The furrow followed free;
    We were the first that ever burst
    Into that silent sea.

    Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down,
    'Twas sad as sad could be;
    And we did speak only to break
    The silence of the sea!

    All in a hot and copper sky,
    The bloody sun, at noon,
    Right up above the mast did stand,
    No bigger than the moon.

    Day after day, day after day,
    We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
    As idle as a painted ship
    Upon a painted ocean.

    Water, water, every where,
    And all the boards did shrink;
    Water, water, every where,
    Nor any drop to drink.

    The very deep did rot: O Christ!
    That ever this should be!
    Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
    Upon the slimy sea.

    About, about, in reel and rout
    The death-fires danced at night;
    The water, like a witch's oils,
    Burnt green, and blue, and white.

    And some in dreams assured were
    Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
    Nine fathom deep he had followed us
    From the land of mist and snow.

    And every tongue, through utter drought,
    Was withered at the root;
    We could not speak, no more than if
    We had been choked with soot.

    Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks
    Had I from old and young!
    Instead of the cross, the Albatross
    About my neck was hung."


    Part III

    "There passed a weary time. Each throat
    Was parched, and glazed each eye.
    A weary time! a weary time!
    How glazed each weary eye -
    When looking westward, I beheld
    A something in the sky.

    At first it seemed a little speck,
    And then it seemed a mist;
    It moved and moved, and took at last
    A certain shape, I wist.

    A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!
    And still it neared and neared:
    As if it dodged a water-sprite,
    It plunged and tacked and veered.

    With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
    We could nor laugh nor wail;
    Through utter drought all dumb we stood!
    I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
    And cried, A sail! a sail!

    With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
    Agape they heard me call:
    Gramercy! they for joy did grin,
    And all at once their breath drew in,
    As they were drinking all.

    See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more!
    Hither to work us weal;
    Without a breeze, without a tide,
    She steadies with upright keel!

    The western wave was all a-flame,
    The day was well nigh done!
    Almost upon the western wave
    Rested the broad bright sun;
    When that strange shape drove suddenly
    Betwixt us and the sun.

    And straight the sun was flecked with bars,
    (Heaven's Mother send us grace!)
    As if through a dungeon-grate he peered
    With broad and burning face.

    Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)
    How fast she nears and nears!
    Are those her sails that glance in the sun,
    Like restless gossameres?

    Are those her ribs through which the sun
    Did peer, as through a grate?
    And is that Woman all her crew?
    Is that a Death? and are there two?
    Is Death that Woman's mate?

    Her lips were red, her looks were free,
    Her locks were yellow as gold:
    Her skin was as white as leprosy,
    The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
    Who thicks man's blood with cold.

    The naked hulk alongside came,
    And the twain were casting dice;
    `The game is done! I've won! I've won!'
    Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

    The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out:
    At one stride comes the dark;
    With far-heard whisper o'er the sea,
    Off shot the spectre-bark.

    We listened and looked sideways up!
    Fear at my heart, as at a cup,
    My life-blood seemed to sip!
    The stars were dim, and thick the night,
    The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white;
    From the sails the dew did drip -
    Till clomb above the eastern bar
    The horned moon, with one bright star
    Within the nether tip.

    One after one, by the star-dogged moon,
    Too quick for groan or sigh,
    Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,
    And cursed me with his eye.

    Four times fifty living men,
    (And I heard nor sigh nor groan)
    With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
    They dropped down one by one.

    The souls did from their bodies fly, -
    They fled to bliss or woe!
    And every soul it passed me by,
    Like the whizz of my crossbow!"


    Part IV

    `I fear thee, ancient Mariner!
    I fear thy skinny hand!
    And thou art long, and lank, and brown,
    As is the ribbed sea-sand.

    I fear thee and thy glittering eye,
    And thy skinny hand, so brown.' -
    "Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest!
    This body dropped not down.

    Alone, alone, all, all alone,
    Alone on a wide wide sea!
    And never a saint took pity on
    My soul in agony.

    The many men, so beautiful!
    And they all dead did lie;
    And a thousand thousand slimy things
    Lived on; and so did I.

    I looked upon the rotting sea,
    And drew my eyes away;
    I looked upon the rotting deck,
    And there the dead men lay.

    I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
    But or ever a prayer had gusht,
    A wicked whisper came and made
    My heart as dry as dust.

    I closed my lids, and kept them close,
    And the balls like pulses beat;
    Forthe sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky,
    Lay like a load on my weary eye,
    And the dead were at my feet.

    The cold sweat melted from their limbs,
    Nor rot nor reek did they:
    The look with which they looked on me
    Had never passed away.

    An orphan's curse would drag to hell
    A spirit from on high;
    But oh! more horrible than that
    Is the curse in a dead man's eye!
    Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
    And yet I could not die.

    The moving moon went up the sky,
    And no where did abide:
    Softly she was going up,
    And a star or two beside -

    Her beams bemocked the sultry main,
    Like April hoar-frost spread;
    But where the ship's huge shadow lay,
    The charmed water burnt alway
    A still and awful red.

    Beyond the shadow of the ship
    I watched the water-snakes:
    They moved in tracks of shining white,
    And when they reared, the elfish light
    Fell off in hoary flakes.

    Within the shadow of the ship
    I watched their rich attire:
    Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
    They coiled and swam; and every track
    Was a flash of golden fire.

    O happy living things! no tongue
    Their beauty might declare:
    A spring of love gushed from my heart,
    And I blessed them unaware:
    Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
    And I blessed them unaware.

    The selfsame moment I could pray;
    And from my neck so free
    The Albatross fell off, and sank
    Like lead into the sea."


    Part V

    "Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing,
    Beloved from pole to pole!
    To Mary Queen the praise be given!
    She sent the gentle sleep from heaven,
    That slid into my soul.

    The silly buckets on the deck,
    That had so long remained,
    I dreamt that they were filled with dew;
    And when I awoke, it rained.

    My lips were wet, my throat was cold,
    My garments all were dank;
    Sure I had drunken in my dreams,
    And still my body drank.

    I moved, and could not feel my limbs:
    I was so light -almost
    I thought that I had died in sleep,
    And was a blessed ghost.

    And soon I heard a roaring wind:
    It did not come anear;
    But with its sound it shook the sails,
    That were so thin and sere.

    The upper air burst into life!
    And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
    To and fro they were hurried about!
    And to and fro, and in and out,
    The wan stars danced between.

    And the coming wind did roar more loud,
    And the sails did sigh like sedge;
    And the rain poured down from one black cloud;
    The moon was at its edge.

    The thick black cloud was cleft, and still
    The moon was at its side:
    Like waters shot from some high crag,
    The lightning fell with never a jag,
    A river steep and wide.

    The loud wind never reached the ship,
    Yet now the ship moved on!
    Beneath the lightning and the moon
    The dead men gave a groan.

    They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
    Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
    It had been strange, even in a dream,
    To have seen those dead men rise.

    The helmsman steered, the ship moved on;
    Yet never a breeze up blew;
    The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,
    Where they were wont to do;
    They raised their limbs like lifeless tools -
    We were a ghastly crew.

    The body of my brother's son
    Stood by me, knee to knee:
    The body and I pulled at one rope,
    But he said nought to me."

    `I fear thee, ancient Mariner!'
    "Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!
    'Twas not those souls that fled in pain,
    Which to their corses came again,
    But a troop of spirits blest:

    For when it dawned -they dropped their arms,
    And clustered round the mast;
    Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,
    And from their bodies passed.

    Around, around, flew each sweet sound,
    Then darted to the sun;
    Slowly the sounds came back again,
    Now mixed, now one by one.

    Sometimes a-dropping from the sky
    I heard the skylark sing;
    Sometimes all little birds that are,
    How they seemed to fill the sea and air
    With their sweet jargoning!

    And now 'twas like all instruments,
    Now like a lonely flute;
    And now it is an angel's song,
    That makes the heavens be mute.

    It ceased; yet still the sails made on
    A pleasant noise till noon,
    A noise like of a hidden brook
    In the leafy month of June,
    That to the sleeping woods all night
    Singeth a quiet tune.

    Till noon we quietly sailed on,
    Yet never a breeze did breathe;
    Slowly and smoothly went the ship,
    Moved onward from beneath.

    Under the keel nine fathom deep,
    From the land of mist and snow,
    The spirit slid: and it was he
    That made the ship to go.
    The sails at noon left off their tune,
    And the ship stood still also.

    The sun, right up above the mast,
    Had fixed her to the ocean:
    But in a minute she 'gan stir,
    With a short uneasy motion -
    Backwards and forwards half her length
    With a short uneasy motion.

    Then like a pawing horse let go,
    She made a sudden bound:
    It flung the blood into my head,
    And I fell down in a swound.

    How long in that same fit I lay,
    I have not to declare;
    But ere my living life returned,
    I heard and in my soul discerned
    Two voices in the air.

    `Is it he?' quoth one, `Is this the man?
    By him who died on cross,
    With his cruel bow he laid full low
    The harmless Albatross.

    The spirit who bideth by himself
    In the land of mist and snow,
    He loved the bird that loved the man
    Who shot him with his bow.'

    The other was a softer voice,
    As soft as honey-dew:
    Quoth he, `The man hath penance done,
    And penance more will do.'


    Part VI

    First Voice

    But tell me, tell me! speak again,
    Thy soft response renewing -
    What makes that ship drive on so fast?
    What is the ocean doing?

    Second Voice

    Still as a slave before his lord,
    The ocean hath no blast;
    His great bright eye most silently
    Up to the moon is cast -

    If he may know which way to go;
    For she guides him smooth or grim.
    See, brother, see! how graciously
    She looketh down on him.

    First Voice

    But why drives on that ship so fast,
    Without or wave or wind?

    Second Voice

    The air is cut away before,
    And closes from behind.

    Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high!
    Or we shall be belated:
    For slow and slow that ship will go,
    When the Mariner's trance is abated.

    "I woke, and we were sailing on
    As in a gentle weather:
    'Twas night, calm night, the moon was high;
    The dead men stood together.

    All stood together on the deck,
    For a charnel-dungeon fitter:
    All fixed on me their stony eyes,
    That in the moon did glitter.

    The pang, the curse, with which they died,
    Had never passed away:
    I could not draw my eyes from theirs,
    Nor turn them up to pray.

    And now this spell was snapped: once more
    I viewed the ocean green,
    And looked far forth, yet little saw
    Of what had else been seen -

    Like one that on a lonesome road
    Doth walk in fear and dread,
    And having once turned round walks on,
    And turns no more his head;
    Because he knows a frightful fiend
    Doth close behind him tread.

    But soon there breathed a wind on me,
    Nor sound nor motion made:
    Its path was not upon the sea,
    In ripple or in shade.

    It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek
    Like a meadow-gale of spring -
    It mingled strangely with my fears,
    Yet it felt like a welcoming.

    Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship,
    Yet she sailed softly too:
    Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze -
    On me alone it blew.

    Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed
    The lighthouse top I see?
    Is this the hill? is this the kirk?
    Is this mine own country?

    We drifted o'er the harbour-bar,
    And I with sobs did pray -
    O let me be awake, my God!
    Or let me sleep alway.

    The harbour-bay was clear as glass,
    So smoothly it was strewn!
    And on the bay the moonlight lay,
    And the shadow of the moon.

    The rock shone bright, the kirk no less,
    That stands above the rock:
    The moonlight steeped in silentness
    The steady weathercock.

    And the bay was white with silent light,
    Till rising from the same,
    Full many shapes, that shadows were,
    In crimson colours came.

    A little distance from the prow
    Those crimson shadows were:
    I turned my eyes upon the deck -
    Oh, Christ! what saw I there!

    Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,
    And, by the holy rood!
    A man all light, a seraph-man,
    On every corse there stood.

    This seraph-band, each waved his hand:
    It was a heavenly sight!
    They stood as signals to the land,
    Each one a lovely light;

    This seraph-band, each waved his hand,
    No voice did they impart -
    No voice; but oh! the silence sank
    Like music on my heart.

    But soon I heard the dash of oars,
    I heard the Pilot's cheer;
    My head was turned perforce away,
    And I saw a boat appear.

    The Pilot and the Pilot's boy,
    I heard them coming fast:
    Dear Lord in heaven! it was a joy
    The dead men could not blast.

    I saw a third -I heard his voice:
    It is the Hermit good!
    He singeth loud his godly hymns
    That he makes in the wood.
    He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away
    The Albatross's blood."


    Part VII

    "This Hermit good lives in that wood
    Which slopes down to the sea.
    How loudly his sweet voice he rears!
    He loves to talk with marineers
    That come from a far country.

    He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve -
    He hath a cushion plump:
    It is the moss that wholly hides
    The rotted old oak-stump.

    The skiff-boat neared: I heard them talk,
    `Why, this is strange, I trow!
    Where are those lights so many and fair,
    That signal made but now?'

    `Strange, by my faith!' the Hermit said -
    `And they answered not our cheer!
    The planks looked warped! and see those sails,
    How thin they are and sere!
    I never saw aught like to them,
    Unless perchance it were

    Brown skeletons of leaves that lag
    My forest-brook along;
    When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow,
    And the owlet whoops to the wolf below,
    That eats the she-wolf's young.'

    `Dear Lord! it hath a fiendish look -
    (The Pilot made reply)
    I am afeared' -`Push on, push on!'
    Said the Hermit cheerily.

    The boat came closer to the ship,
    But I nor spake nor stirred;
    The boat came close beneath the ship,
    And straight a sound was heard.

    Under the water it rumbled on,
    Still louder and more dread:
    It reached the ship, it split the bay;
    The ship went down like lead.

    Stunned by that loud and dreadful sound,
    Which sky and ocean smote,
    Like one that hath been seven days drowned
    My body lay afloat;
    But swift as dreams, myself I found
    Within the Pilot's boat.

    Upon the whirl where sank the ship
    The boat spun round and round;
    And all was still, save that the hill
    Was telling of the sound.

    I moved my lips -the Pilot shrieked
    And fell down in a fit;
    The holy Hermit raised his eyes,
    And prayed where he did sit.

    I took the oars: the Pilot's boy,
    Who now doth crazy go,
    Laughed loud and long, and all the while
    His eyes went to and fro.
    `Ha! ha!' quoth he, `full plain I see,
    The Devil knows how to row.'

    And now, all in my own country,
    I stood on the firm land!
    The Hermit stepped forth from the boat,
    And scarcely he could stand.

    O shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man!
    The Hermit crossed his brow.
    `Say quick,' quoth he `I bid thee say -
    What manner of man art thou?'

    Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched
    With a woeful agony,
    Which forced me to begin my tale;
    And then it left me free.

    Since then, at an uncertain hour,
    That agony returns;
    And till my ghastly tale is told,
    This heart within me burns.

    I pass, like night, from land to land;
    I have strange power of speech;
    That moment that his face I see,
    I know the man that must hear me:
    To him my tale I teach.

    What loud uproar bursts from that door!
    The wedding-guests are there:
    But in the garden-bower the bride
    And bride-maids singing are;
    And hark the little vesper bell,
    Which biddeth me to prayer!

    O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been
    Alone on a wide wide sea:
    So lonely 'twas, that God himself
    Scarce seemed there to be.

    O sweeter than the marriage-feast,
    'Tis sweeter far to me,
    To walk together to the kirk
    With a goodly company! -

    To walk together to the kirk,
    And all together pray,
    While each to his great Father bends,
    Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
    And youths and maidens gay!

    Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
    To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
    He prayeth well, who loveth well
    Both man and bird and beast.

    He prayeth best, who loveth best
    All things both great and small;
    For the dear God who loveth us,
    He made and loveth all."

    The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
    Whose beard with age is hoar,
    Is gone; and now the Wedding-Guest
    Turned from the bridegroom's door.

    He went like one that hath been stunned,
    And is of sense forlorn:
    A sadder and a wiser man
    He rose the morrow morn.


    Taken from The Literature Network - http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/646/




    And now...Iron Maiden's version:




    Lyrics:

    Hear the rime of the ancient mariner
    See his eye as he stops one of three
    Mesmerises one of the wedding guests
    Stay here and listen to the nightmares of the sea.

    And the music plays on, as the bride passes by
    Caught by his spell and the mariner tells his tale.

    Driven south to the land of the snow and ice
    To a place where nobody's been
    Through the snow fog flies on the albatross
    Hailed in God's name, hoping good luck it brings.

    And the ship sails on, back to the North
    Through the fog and ice and the albatross follows on.

    The mariner kills the bird of good omen
    His shipmates cry against what he's done
    But when the fog clears, they justify him
    And make themselves a part of the crime.

    Sailing on and on and north across the sea
    Sailing on and on and north 'til all is calm.

    The albatross begins with its vengeance
    A terrible curse a thirst has begun
    His shipmates blame bad luck on the mariner
    About his neck, the dead bird is hung.

    And the curse goes on and on at sea
    And the thirst goes on and on for them and me.

    "Day after day, day after day,
    we stuck nor breath nor motion
    as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean
    Water, water everywhere and
    all the boards did shrink
    Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink."

    There calls the mariner
    There comes a ship over the line
    But how can she sail with no wind in her sails and no tide.

    See...onward she comes
    Onward she nears out of the sun
    See, she has no crew
    She has no life, wait but there's two.

    Death and she Life in Death,
    They throw their dice for the crew
    She wins the mariner and he belongs to her now.
    Then...crew one by one
    they drop down dead, two hundred men
    She...she, Life in Death.
    She lets him live, her chosen one.

    "One after one by the star dogged moon,
    too quick for groan or sigh
    each turned his face with a ghastly pang
    and cursed me with his eye
    four times fifty living men
    (and I heard nor sigh nor groan)
    with heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
    they dropped down one by one."

    The curse it lives on in their eyes
    The mariner he wished he'd die
    Along with the sea creatures
    But they lived on, so did he.

    And by the light of the moon
    He prays for their beauty not doom
    With heart he blesses them
    God's creatures all of them too.

    Then the spell starts to break
    The albatross falls from his neck
    Sinks down like lead into the sea
    Then down in falls comes the rain.

    Hear the groans of the long dead seamen
    See them stir and they start to rise
    Bodies lifted by good spirits
    None of them speak and they're lifeless in their eyes

    And revenge is still sought, penance starts again
    Cast into a trance and the nightmare carries on.

    Now the curse is finally lifted
    And the mariner sights his home
    spirits go from the long dead bodies
    Form their own light and the mariner's left alone.

    And then a boat came sailing towards him
    It was a joy he could not believe
    The pilot's boat, his son and the hermit,
    Penance of life will fall onto him.

    And the ship it sinks like lead into the sea
    And the hermit shrieves the mariner of his sins.

    The mariner's bound to tell of his story
    To tell this tale wherever he goes
    To teach God's word by his own example
    That we must love all things that God made.

    And the wedding guest's a sad and wiser man
    And the tale goes on and on and on.
    "It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth."
    - John Locke

  2. #2
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    Iron Maiden is an excellent band.
    The Rymn of the Ancient Mariner being one of their best, and longest, songs.

    Excellent choice LadyWarrior.
    The all seeing eye is always watching.

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