The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Big Read

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Arts
**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.21 - Neil Tennant May 07, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/21

Reader
Neil Tennant
Singer + songwriter
Recorded at Studio PSB, London

---

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.

---

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

---

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.20 - Cerys Matthews May 06, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/20

Reader
Cerys Matthews
Singer + Author
Recorded at the Stags Head,
Fitzrovia, London

---

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.

---

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

---

Reading No.19 - Deborah Warner May 05, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/19

Reader
Deborah Warner
Opera director
Recorded in Islington, London

---

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.

---

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

---

Reading No.18 - Chris Packham May 04, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/18

Reader
Chris Packham
Naturalist
Recorded in the New Forest, Hampshire

---

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

---

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

---

Reading No.17 - Olivia Laing May 04, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/17

Reader
Olivia Laing
Author
Recorded at Emmanuel College Chapel,
Cambridge

---

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 charmèd water burnt alway
A still and awful red.

---

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

---

Reading No.16 - Alan Cumming May 02, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/16

Reader
Alan Cumming
Actor
Recorded in New York City

---

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;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky
Lay dead 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.

---

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

---

Reading No.15 - Marianne Faithfull May 01, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/15

Reader
Marianne Faithfull
Singer, songwriter, actor
Recorded in West London

---

'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 dropt 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.

---

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

---

Reading No.14 - Cyrus Larcombe Moore Apr 30, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/14

Reader
Cyrus Larcombe Moore
Poet
Recorded at St Mary's Church,
Ottery St Mary, Devon

---

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 cross-bow!

---

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

---

Reading No.13 - Lemn Sissay Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/13

Reader
Lemn Sissay
Poet + Author
Recorded at Folkestone Book Festival

---

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.

And stifled words and groans of pain
Mix'd on each murmuring lip,
We look'd round and we looked up
And Fear at our hearts as at a Cup,
The Life-blood seemed to sip.

The Sky was dull and dark the Night,
The Helmsman's face by his lamp gleam'd bright,
From the Sails the Dew did drip—
Till clomb above the eastern bar
The hornèd Moon, with one bright Star
Within the nether tip.

---

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

---

Reading No.12 - Ali Smith Apr 28, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/12

Reader
Ali Smith
Author
Recorded at Emmanuel College Chapel,
Cambridge

---

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 Night-mare 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.

---

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

---

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Big Read

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected