Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Hear the rime of the ancient mariner.
See his eye, as he stops one of three,
Mesmerizes 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 a 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 bad luck on the mariner.
About his neck, the dead bird is hung.
And the curse goes on and on at sea.
And the curse 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 here'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 wished he'd die
Along with the sea creatures,
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 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 pilot's 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 shrives the mariner of his sins.
The mariner's bound to tell of his story,
To tell this 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.