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. 10 - Beth Gibbons Apr 26, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/10

Reader
Beth Gibbons
Singer + songwriter

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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!

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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.9 - Iggy Pop Apr 25, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/9

Reader
Iggy Pop
Singer + songwriter
Recorded in Miami

---

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 assurèd 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.

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

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Reading No.8 - Tilda Swinton Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/8

Reader
Tilda Swinton
Actor
Recorded in the
Scottish Highlands

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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.

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

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Reading No.7 - Simon Armitage Apr 23, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/7

Reader
Simon Armitage
Poet
Recorded in the West Yorkshire Pennines

---

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

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

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Reading No.5 - Willem Dafoe Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/5

Reader
Willem Dafoe
Actor

Artwork
Gordon Cheung
Albatross Glitch

---

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 Moon-shine.'

'God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look'st thou so?'—With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.

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

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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.4 - Peter Wilson Apr 20, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/4

Reader
Peter Wilson
Polar guide
Filmed + recorded by Eric Wehrmeister,
Point Wild, Antarctica
Lat: 61°05 S
Lon: 54°52 W

---

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 if 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!

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

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Reading No.3 - Samuel West Apr 19, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/3

Reader
Samuel West
Actor + director
Recorded in Islington, London

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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 forward 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.

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

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Reading No.2 - Jeanette Winterson Apr 18, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/2

Reader:
Jeanette Winterson
Author
Recorded at The Charterhouse, London

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'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.

---

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. 1 - Jeremy Irons Apr 15, 2020

Show notes

Discover more: https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/reading/1

Reader
Jeremy Irons
Actor
Recorded at Bath Priory, Somerset

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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:
May'st 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 dropt 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.

---

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.

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