'THE ANCIENT MARINER '
Read by Mr. J. C. SQUIRE
'THE ANCIENT MARINER ' is one of those poems with a historical as well as an intrinsic significance. Published in the ' Lyrical Ballads' of 1798, in which Wordsworth and Coleridge combined to throw down the gauntlet to the classicists who had, on the whole, ruled English poetry since Dryden's time, it was by far the most challenging thing in the volume, and may truly be said to have led to the romantic ascendancy of the nineteenth century. At the same time its value is not merely historic; it remains one of the most beautiful of ' faery ' poems.
Mr. J. C. Squire , who reads the poem, is an essayist, literary critic, poet and parodist. He is editor of the London Mercury, and chief critic to the Observer.