The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published in 1798. Here, Holger Jetter delivers an electrifying improvisation of English Romanicism, articulated through the concept of the ‘Sublime’ and expressed with great colour and dynamism through a variety of instruments.
Norman Bowler has performed with this poem many times. Holger Jetter composed music especially for this performance. Matt Littlewood and Nadaprem play with him.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner relates the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding-guest’s reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the mariner’s story progresses, as can be seen in the language style: Coleridge uses narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create a sense of danger, the supernatural, or serenity, depending on the mood in different parts of the poem.
Read the poem here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173253
Recorded and mastered by The Unstitute