Literature Meets Music

Tomorrow I’m taking the GRE Subject Test in Literature and I admit I’m scared out of my mind. I only wish that I could have the same ability of remembering famous texts as I do with music. Or maybe if artists could create more songs about famous works that would be great. Of course I don’t doubt that there must be many songs based on the classics, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find them just yet. I have however found two songs that are based on the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

For those of you who don’t know, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet who was one of the main writers of the Romantic Movement during the 18th century. His most famous work is titled “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. In this poem, a sailor stops a wedding guest to narrate the story of his long voyage. During his voyage, the sailor killed an albatross, a bird that the other sailors believed was bringing them good luck. By killing it the sailor brought bad luck amongst them and as his punishment he had to wear the dead albatross across his neck. When studying this poem, my professor mentioned that there are various interpretations of it.