A Biased Literary Critique of Iron Maiden’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner
and by Extension Coleridge’s Poem of the Same Name
Part 1: Background
This Discussion is an examination of the lyrics of the song The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden, the greatest Heavy Metal band of all time, and how Steve Harris et al modified the text of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem of the same name to create a powerful and iconic musical narrative, while maintaining the theme, emotion, and morality of the original text.
Iron Maiden was formed in England on Christmas Day 1975, by Steve Harris, bass player, chief songwriter, and the only continuous member over the band’s now 50-year history. Considered one of the most influential Heavy Metal bands of all time, especially during their heyday in the 1980’s, Iron Maiden has sold over 100 million records. This was largely without any radio airplay or mainstream support, and despite repeated allegations of hedonism and satanism, labels that, to be fair, were levied at most Metal bands at some point, especially during the last couple of decades of the 20th century. The band’s longevity and success is due to multiple reasons; driving, catchy guitar riffs and enchanting melodies, powerful vocals, musical craftsmanship and talent, amazing live performances, and their peculiar literary inspired style of songwriting and storytelling. Many bands have included references to external, especially literary, sources over the years, both prior to Iron Maiden, and since, but few delved as deeply and as consistently into the lore, meaning, and form of its inspirations as has Iron Maiden. Although there are notable exceptions and their inspiration runs the gamut of genres and formats, most of the source material used by the band is of a distinctly British heritage, including works from 19th century Romantic poetry through to 1960’s serialized television, all of which has a particularly narrative and dramatic style.
A bit about the original literature. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a British poet of the Romantic period (1785-1832) and the original poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, was published in 1798 in Coleridge’s critical volume, Lyrical Ballads. The poem is considered one of Coleridge’s seminal literary efforts and the poet himself is considered one of the “Big 6” of most important authors of the Romantic period.
Almost 200 years later, on September 3, 1984, Iron Maiden released Powerslave, the band’s 5th studio album, which contained their version of Coleridge’s poem, lyrically revised and set to the band’s distinctive metal sound. The track ran 13 minutes and 45 seconds, making it the band’s longest song until it was surpassed in 2015. When performed live, the song could extend even longer, up to around the 18-to-22-minute mark.
Musically, many critics assert that Rime is as much a prog rock composition as a metal one, having a narrated interlude, thematic but non-musical sound effects, and numerous changes to its pacing, timing, and rhythm. This musical complexity was, however, regularly a feature of Iron Maiden’s distinctive style
Part 2: Critique
Supposedly written under intense time constraints, the finished song does not seem to be negatively affected by this fact, and indeed its numerous time and tempo changes, as well as its length, are a testament to the creative efficiency that may have come from not having too long to linger on its construction. Lyrically, the song follows along the poem very closely, and though it does cut out significant pieces of the original text, the song maintains the overall story, tone, tension, and moral imperative of the poem incredibly well. It even manages, with some of the omitted content, to avoid the few places where the original gets a bit wordy and loses its sense of foreboding apprehension and dread for a few moments. To be fair, there are also selections left out of the song that the poem contains that add in a richness of detail and depth not found in the song. Most notable of these things, in my opinion, is the quote,
Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread
which seems a bit out of synch with a story of being lost at sea but is nonetheless a wonderful passage. As is the one that ends this Discussion. With that said, the song mirrors the poem in its intention and story, so much so that, unlike Flight of Icarus, which is a more abstracted version of the Greek myth and has its own narrative that parallels and complements, but does not directly retell the original story, a listener or a reader of Rime will come away with an experience that maintains the integrity of the tale while telling it in different formats. The poem uses its stylized poetic language to present and build the sense of a supernatural psychological horror. The song, with its rock lyric reconfigured wording, uses the music to create some of the tension and drama that may be lost in the translation. This works incredibly well, from the driving, churning riffs of a stormy voyage to slower melodic, almost ghostly sounds that serve to build the tension. The music and modified lyrics work well together to instill the emotion of the story, while the sound is quintessential Maiden.
Although thematically and narratively similar, there is a very obvious difference in the styling of the two versions. This is to be expected by the fact that one was written for a book in the late 1700’s and the other for mighty vocals and power chords in 1980’s heavy metal. Reading the poem is a slow build of despair, isolation, and inevitability of accountability for one’s deeds in the face of the supernatural. Maiden’s Rime condenses the first 20 lines of the poem into one 6-line verse. The wedding guest is mesmerized to hear the tale. By the time we reach 20 lines in the song, the albatross is beginning its vengeance. The fourth line of the song, “stay here and listen to the nightmares of the sea,” tells us what we don’t fully learn until much later on in the poem. The song sets the tone from the start as a tale of unrelenting horror, and furthermore utilizes the words, “mesmerize,” and “caught by his spell” to invoke a sense of the mystical and supernatural.
The dreadfulness and inevitability called to mind by this style of writing continues throughout the course of the song, not even loosening the tension at the end, where the final words are still a dire warning from a wisdom born of sorrow. The song does not really ebb and flow like the poem, instead, even in the few moments of creaking wood and rope and narration, the suspense is continuously maintained. The passage from the poem chosen here for the spoken word is quiet, calm, and very still. Yet, within that silent stillness, the doom seems ever impending.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
Despite omitting a good bit of the detail and depth, the song manages to keep a poetic sensibility, and maintains a strong literary quality, as well as successfully conveying the central concepts and tenets of the original. The story is reformatted, but inherently unaltered. The sense of supernatural dread is in both, and the tone of inevitability and accountability, as well as the moral conclusion and admonishment. This fidelity is a respect to the author that is seen less and less in translations and adaptations as time passes. In our current moment, the urge to improve on the original is a conceit that grows continually and shows no signs of being overcome anytime soon. If anything, those who call themselves artists and writers now are more intent on fixing the errors of the past to placate the delicate sensibilities of an elusive modern audience than on creating anything original themselves. Yet, let’s not dwell on the sad state of contemporary art and literature and get back to the topic of discussion, Iron Maiden’s excellent version of Coleridge’s classic, where we will start to wrap things up.
In addition to the faithfulness to the original narrative, there is one other similarity that exists between the band and the poet. This is a similarity that is perhaps more contextual than anything, but at the very least adds an interesting element to the consideration of the relationship between the tellers of the two tales. In both cases, the Romantic poet and 80’s metal band, the each fulfilled much the same role in society. Charismatic, popular, edgy, they were both the rock stars of their respective generations. Both were youthful, inspired, creative, as well as rebellious and dangerous, speaking a distinctive language to their audience. Both were part of larger cultural movements within genres that existed for a very brief and discrete period of time yet had an immense impact on those periods and the succeeding histories that followed.
If asked which version I personally like more, I would be hard pressed to answer. It is choosing between two things I really hold dear, which is to say, British Romantic poetry and the greatest metal band of the greatest metal era of all time. Let’s just say that I’ve listened to the song considerably more times than read the poem, which is to be expected I reckon, and that seeing and hearing it performed live was my best experience of it ever. We will close here with the second quote, that I mentioned previously, which is, in the end, the moral of the story.
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
Godspeed,
