The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
This classic poem is one of the most famous works to emerge from the Romantic Movement and is the longest major work written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Composed as a continuous narrative, the poem relates the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long and trying voyage. Coleridge employs many obscure or archaic words—such as in the poem's title—and later editions included marginal glosses written by Coleridge himself. The poem's dramatic account of sin and restoration has led to its lasting place in the canon of English literature.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"It is an ancient Mariner, and he stoppeth one of thee...." Although these ominous lines perennially instill fear of final exams and term papers in the minds of high school students and Romantic English majors, they're not often remembered by adults. Mason's reading of Coleridge's 1796 epic poem is at once hypnotic and stirring. The Academy Award nominated actor reads the chilling tale involving clashes with sea monsters, a boat swarming with zombies and a dice game with Death in an authoritative English accent. Like the ocean surrounding the Mariner's ship, his voice ebbs and flows with the imaginative poem's various heights. He quickly rattles off, "water, water, every where, and all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink" but gently whispers "And I had done an hellish thing, and it would work 'em woe: For all averred, I had killed the bird that made the breeze to blow." Coleridge (1772 1834), uses words to make the fantastical believable, and here, Mason brings those words vividly to life. A bonus track features Mason's animated reading of The Hunting of the Snark, an eight-canto poem by Lewis Carroll.
