Heavy Metal Poetry

       Poetry put to heavy metal music? It has been done. Steve Harris, the founder of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden, was a professinal football player and major in english at West Ham United in Europe. During that time in college he discovered his passion for music and began Iron Maiden where he plays bass and is a back ground singer. Given Steve Harris's background in english he learned alot about poetry and romanticism which is where he came up with the song Rime of The Ancient Mariner.
       Rime of the Ancient Mariner contains many direct quotes from Samuel Taylor Colridge's popular poem. The song was finished in 1984 and was a huge hit! This thirteen minute ballad of heavy metal poetry begins with describing the wedding at which the mariner begins his tale to the wedding guest he stopped. As the song continues, so does the poem. Using a few direct quotes from Coleridge's poem and Steve Harris puts his own interpretation into the song. "The mariner kills the bird of good omen" where in the poem it never states weither the bird was good or bad, or if killing it cursed or helped the ship mates, but Harris throws in his own opinion.

Here are the lyrics to Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden: Click Here

       When this never ending song finishes, thirteen minutes later, the listener can tell that Steve Harris belived that the poem's main theme is the mariner is to spread the word that we must love all things God made, the final quote in the song is "And the tale goes on and on and on." Which is a quote from the original poem and it means that the wedding guest must now share that story as well and keep the word of God going.

By Kerri Peetz