Hear the rime of the Ancient Mariner
See his eyes 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 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 the bad luck on the Mariner
About
his neck, the dead bird is hung.
And the curse goes on and 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 creatres
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 pilots 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 his 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
