Not Just An Awesome Song

I recently read the classic "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," by Coleridge. Before now, I had only been exposed to the actual text once before in my senior AP English class. We watched a video in which the verses were read by some typical "scholarly" British voice (if you know the kind) while still paintings and drawings drifted lazily across the screen. Needless to say, it almost put me to sleep. So up until now the only manner I ever enjoyed the poem was the superb, head-banging adaptation of the song by Iron Maiden (13+ minute long song!). Listening to a heavy metal song adapting a classic work of literature is having a neutral balance of brain cells; I gain new ones from the story and lose them rocking out to the music. So this time I read the actual poem fully expecting it to be wholly non-engaging. Actually, I was plesantly surprised. I was struck by the excellent flow and often song-like quality and feel of the rhymes as well as the vivid imagery and symbolism throughout the work. It's overall a very powerful tale of how a man nearly loses his life and soul, and then in the end revives both. Yes, I'll admit that the themes of redemption and respect of nature hit me much stronger encountering "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in its original form. I still really like that song, though. (On a smaller note, I also discovered that the Maiden song left out a lot more of the narrative than I knew about.)