RIME OF THE
ANCIENT MARINER
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 curse
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 here'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 facce 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
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 lifelesss 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
fromhe 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
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 thaat God made.
And the wedding
guest's a sad and wiser man
And the tale
goes on and on and on.
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