The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Big Read

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**The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Big Read**

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a founding fable of our modern age. We are the wedding guests, and the albatross around the Mariner’s neck is an emblem of human despair and our abuse of the natural world. Yet in its beautiful terror there lies a wondrous solution – that we might wake up and find ourselves saved. Art knows no boundaries. The Ancient Mariner Big Read is an inclusive, immersive work of audio and visual art from the 21st century that reflects the sweeping majesty and abiding influence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 18th century epic poem.

Latest Episodes:

Reading No.31 - Frances Barber May 17, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/31

Reader
Frances Barber
Actress
Recorded at Studio PSB, London

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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.

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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Copyright: The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth. The Ancient Mariner Big Read is not for profit and cannot be sold, either as a whole or in part, without permission from The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth, UK.

Reading No.30 - Jodie Whittaker May 16, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/30

Reader
Jodie Whittaker
Actor
Recorded in Netley, Hampshire

---

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!

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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Reading No.29 - Stephen Dillane May 15, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/29

Reader
Stephen Dillane
Actor
Recorded in Sussex

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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 light-house top I see?
Is this the hill? is this the kirk?
Is this mine own countree?

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.

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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Reading No.28 - David Walliams May 14, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/28

Reader
David Walliams
Author + actor
Recorded in London W1

---

And now this spell was snapt: 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.

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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Reading No.27 - Rupert Everett May 13, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/27

Reader
Rupert Everett
Actor + author
Recorded in Wiltshire

---

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.

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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Reading No.26 - Zeb Soanes + Cleo Silvestre May 12, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/26

Reader
Zeb Soanes + Cleo Silvestre
Radio announcer + Actress
Recorded in Canonbury, London

---

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.'

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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Reading No.25 - Chris Watson May 11, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/25

Reader
Chris Watson
Naturalist + sound artist
Recorded on Blyth beach,
Northumberland

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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.'

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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Reading No.24 - Maggi Hambling May 10, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/24

Reader
Maggi Hambling
Artist
Recorded in South London

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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.

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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Reading No.23 - David Gray May 09, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/23

Reader
David Gray
Singer + songwriter
Recorded in Hampstead, London

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Sometimes a-dropping from the sky
I heard the sky-lark 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.

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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Reading No.22 - Philip Hoare May 08, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/22

Reader
Philip Hoare
Author
Recorded on Southampton Water

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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.

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You can find the Ancient Mariner Big Read here: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

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