Gustave Dore’s etching for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Plate 22: They all uprose; picture via http://dore.artpassions.net/ .

“The loud wind never reached the ship,
Yen now the ship moved on!
Beneath the lightning and the moon
The dead men gave a groan.

They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise.

The helmsman steered, the ship moved on,
Yet never a breeze up-blew;
The mariners all’gan work the ropes
Where they were wont to do;
They raised their limbs like lifeless tools -
We were a ghastly crew.”

- lines 327 to 340 of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

What’s to be said that doesn’t take away from the image and poem?  Dore was an amazing artist who complimented and enriched the work of masters and masterpieces.  We also have Coleridge to thank (or bemoan) for Iron Maiden’s co-opting of this poem.