Track Section/Title Reader Length
1 01 – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner David Barnes 24:04
2 02- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner David Wales 27:46

Production - Version 1
Read by: David Barnes
From: Librivox Long Poems Collection 005
Book Coordinator: Alan Davis Drake
Meta Coordinator: David Barnes

Production - Version 2
Read by: David Wales
From: Librivox Sea Poems: An Idiosyncratic Selection
Book Coordinator: David Wales
Meta Coordinator: Tricia G
Proof Listener: Dave C

Artwork
Cover: He killed the albatross / J.K. with apologies to G. Doré, 1913,by Udo J.  Keppler, Library of Congress
Inset: Frontispiece to 1903 Essex House Press edition of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by William Strang
Inset: Portrait of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1795, by Peter Vandyke.

Water, water, every where / Nor any drop to drink. We all know these lines. And we are all familiar with the image of an “albatross around the neck” as a symbol of a heavy burden of guilt. What many don’t know (or have forgotten) is that these and others are from Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, a long poem cast in the form of a narrative of a long sea voyage told by an old mariner to a wedding guest. It is classic horror story. The ship starts off well but is soon driven by storms to the Antarctic, where an albatross leads them out of an ice jam, but is then shot by the mariner. Initially cursed by the crew for his sin against nature, he is praised when the ship sails out of the mist and chill to rosier climes, and cursed again when the ship is becalmed at the equator. They meet a supernatural creature when they encounter a ghostly ship who gambles for the souls of the crew. They all gradually succumb and then rise from the dead to steer the ship back home, only to sink in a whirlpool on arriving, with all lost except the mariner. Coleridge narrates the events in the story in different styles to convey the different moods of the listener’s reaction to each section, ranging through bemusement, impatience, fear, and fascination. The poem first appeared in “Lyrical Ballads” in 1798 and was inspired by several accounts of voyages of exploration, most notably James Cook’s account of his second voyage of the South Sea Islands and the Pacific Ocean.


Play sample: 

Download a PDF datasheet

 


Item Info
EAN - DVD case 0682550991443
EAN - CD jacket 0682550991474
Media MP3 CD
Package DVD case, CD jacket, CD security sleeve, download zip file
Author Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834)
Year 1798
Recording
Read by Version 1 - David Barnes Version 2 - David Wales
Length Version 1 - 24:04 Version 2 - 27:46 52 minutes total
Type of Reading Solo readings

Write a review

Please login or register to review

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

  • $7.99


Available Options

(SKU DB-7005) (EAN 0682550991443 )
(SKU CJ-7005) (EAN 0682550991474 )
(SKU CD-7005)
(SKU DL-7005)

Related Products

Frankenstein

Frankenstein

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the wife of Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, is the author of the t..

$9.99

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a collection of 45 poems by English poet William Blake. ..

$9.99

Lyrical Ballads, With A Few Other Poems (1798)

Lyrical Ballads, With A Few Other Poems (1798)

Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems is a landmark collection of poems by William Wordsworth and ..

$9.99