Seamus Perry
speaker
386 appearances
5 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 31 Aug
Seamus Perry’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 2.
Appearances
our conversations.
Anyway, let's cut to the poem.
We should start off by saying something about the extraordinary way in which the poem begins.
It is an ancient mariner, and he stoppeth one of three.
By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
The bridegroom's doors are open wide, and I am next of kin.
The guests are met, the feast is set, mayst hear the merry din.
He holds him with his skinny hand.
There was a ship, quoth he.
"'Hold off, unhand me, grey-beard loon!'
"'Eftsoons his hand dropped he.
"'He holds him with—' "'And these are the lines that Wordsworth contributed.
"'He holds him with his glittering eye.
"'The wedding guest stood still "'and listens like a three-years child.
"'The mariner hath his will.'
So, I mean, this is, apart from anything else, this is a very, very spooky self-portrait, isn't it?
Of Coleridge's own amazing, compelling capacity to talk.
It's important, isn't it, that the opening stanzas establish a frame narrative.
So if you were to ask someone what the ancient mariner is about, as it were, what the story of the ancient mariner is, then, of course, we would talk about shooting of the albatross and the subsequent kind of persecution and penance and the return back to England and all the rest of it.
But at the most literal level, what The Ancient Mariner is about is a really terrible encounter at a wedding reception where someone just won't stop talking to you.
Showing 261–280 of 386 · page 14 of 20
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