(Harris)
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Hear the rime of the Ancient Mariner
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See his eye as he stops one of three
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Mesmerises one of the wedding guests
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Stay here and listen to the nightmares
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of the Sea
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And the music plays on, as the bride passes by
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Caught by his spell and
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the Mariner tells his tale.
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Driven south to the land of the snow and ice
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To a place where nobody's been
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Through the snow fog flies on the albatross
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Hailed in God's name,
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hoping good luck it brings.
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And the ship sails on, back to the North
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Through the fog and ice and
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the albatross follows on
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The mariner kills the bird of good omen
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His shipmates cry against what he's done
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But when the fog clears, they justify him
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And make themselves a part of the crime.
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Sailing on and on and North across the sea
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Sailing on and on and North 'till all is calm
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The albatross begins with its vengeance
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A terrible curse a thirst has begun
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His shipmates blame bad luck on the Mariner
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About his neck, the dead bird is hung.
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And the curse goes on and on at sea
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And the curse goes on and on for them and me.
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"Day after day, day after day,
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we stuck nor breath nor motion
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As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean
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Water, water everywhere and
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all the boards did shrink
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Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink."
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[Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798-1834)]
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There, calls the mariner
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there comes a ship over the line
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But how can she sail with no wind
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in her sails and no tide.
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See... onward she comes
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Onwards she nears, out of the sun
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See... she has no crew
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She has no life, wait but there's two
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Death and she Life in Death,
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they throw their dice for the crew
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She wins the Mariner and he belongs to her now.
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Then... crew one by one
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They drop down dead, two hundred men
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She... She, Life in Death.
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She lets him live, her chosen one.
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[Narrative]
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"One after one by the star dogged moon,
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too quick for groan or sigh
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Each turned his face with a ghastly pang
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and cursed me with his eye
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Four times fifty living men
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(and I heard nor sigh nor groan),
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With heavy tramp, a lifeless lump,
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they dropped down one by one."
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[Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798-1834)]
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The curse it lives on in their eyes
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The Mariner he wished he'd die
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Along with the sea creatures
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But they lived on, so did he.
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And by the light of moon
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He prays for their beauty not doom
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With heart he blesses them
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God's creatures all of them too.
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Then the spell starts to break
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The albatross falls from his neck
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Sinks down like lead into the Sea
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Then down in falls comes the rain.
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Hear the groans od the long dead seamen
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See them stir and they start to rise
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Bodies lifted by good spirits
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None of them speak
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and they're lifeless in their eyes
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And revenge is still sought, penance starts again
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Cast into a trance and the nightmare carries on.
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Now the curse is finally lifted
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And the Mariner sights his home
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Spirits go from the long dead bodies
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Form their own light and
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the Mariner's left alone
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And then a boat came sailing towards him
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It was a joy he could not believe
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The Pilot's boat, his son and the hermit
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Penance of life will fall onto Him.
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And the ship it sinks like lead into the sea
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And the hermit shrieves the mariner of his sins
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The Mariner's bound to tell of his story
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To tell his tale wherever he goes
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To teach God's word by his own example
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That we must love all things that God made.
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And the wedding guest's a sad and wiser man
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And the tale goes on and on and on.
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-----------------
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Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
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Iron Maiden |