The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a fairly long poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797-1798 and revised until 1817, concerning what happens when a sailor on a ship on a long voyage shoots down an albatross.

What it means, however, is quite a lot more. In fact, it supports widely differing interpretations.

External links

• text of the 1798 version (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/%7Erbear/ballads#THE%20RIME)
• text of the 1817 version (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner)

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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is also the title of a song by Iron Maiden, a 14-minute heavy metal ballad based on Coleridge's poem, proving if nothing else that even Spinal Tap could not capture the sheer majestic silliness of rock and roll.