[Steve Harris]
Hear the rime of the ancient mariner
See his eye as he stops one of three
Mesmerises 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 and on at sea
And the thirst 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 shrin
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 the 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.
