“The very deep did rot:

O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl
with legs

125
Upon the slimy sea.

“At first it seemed a little

speck,
And then it seemed a mist:
It moved and moved, and
took at last

151
A certain shape, I wist.

“About, about, in reel and “A speck, a mist, a shape,
rout,

I wist!
The death-fires danced at And still it neared and
night;

neared:
The water, like a witch's | As if it dodged a water-
oils,

sprite,
Burnt green, and blue, and It plunged and tacked and
white.

130 veered.

155

A Spirit had fol. “And some in dreams as- “With throats unslaked, At its nearer af

proach, it seemet of the invisible in sured were

with black lips baked, him to be a ship; habitants of this

and at a dear ranplanet, neither de Of the spirit that plagued We could nor laugh nor

som he freetb bis parted souls nor us so:

wail;

speech from the angels.

bonds of thirst.
Nine fathom deep he had Through utter drought all
followed us,

dumb we stood!
From the land of mist and I bit my arm; I sucked the
snow.

blood,

160

And cried, 'A sail! a sail!' “And every tongue, through

utter drought, 135 | “With throats unslaked, Was withered at the root; with black lips baked, We could not speak, no Agape they heard me call:

:

, A flash of joy; more than if

Gramercy! they for joy did ·
We had been choked with grin,
soot.

And all at once their breath
drew in,

165
The shipmates, in “Ah! well-a-day! what evil | As they were drinking all.
their sore distress,
would fain throw

looks the whole guilt on the ancient Mar. Had I from old and young! “See! see (I cried) she And horror..

lows. For can it iner: in sign Instead of the cross, the tacks no more!

be a ship that whereof they hang

comes onward with the dead seabird Albatross

141 Hither to work us weal; out wind or tide? round his neck. About my neck was hung. Without a breeze, without

a tide,
PART III

She steadies with upright
keel!'

170.
“There passed a weary

time. Each throat | “The western wave was all
Was parched, and glazed a-flame:
each eye.

The day was well nigh done:
A weary time! A weary | Almost upon the western
time!

145 wave How glazed each weary Rested the broad bright The ancient Mar

sun; iner beholdeth

en When looking westward I
a

When that strange shape
sign in the element
afar off.
beheld

drove suddenly 175 A something in the sky. | Betwixt us and the sun.

ee

but the skeleton of a ship.

moon,

180

bar

seen as bars on the

sun.

Death-mate, and

It seemeth him “And straight the sun was “We listened and looked At the rising of the flecked with bars,

sideways up!
(Heaven's Mother send us Fear at my heart, as at a
grace!)

cup,
As if through a dungeon My life-blood seemed to
grate he peered,

sip!

205 With broad and burning | The stars were dim, and face.

thick the night,

The steersman's face by his
“Alas! (thought I, and my lamp gleamed white;

heart beat loud) From the sails the dew did
How fast she nears and drip-
nears!

Till clomb above the eastern
Are those her sails that

glance in the sun, The hornèd moon, with one
Like restless gossameres?

bright star 210

Within the nether tip. And its ribs are “Are those her ribs through

which the sun face of the setting

“One after one, by the star- One after another,

185
Did peer, as through a dogged moon,
grate?

Too quick for groan or
The Speçtre And is that Woman all her sigh,
Woman and her
crew?

Each turned his face with
no other on board Is that a Death? and are a ghastly pang,
the skeleton-ship.
there two?

And cursed me with his
Is Death that woman's eye.

215
mate?

“Four times fifty living

softv living His shipmates drop Like vessel, like “Her

men, lips were red, her crew! looks were free, 190

(And I heard nor sigh nor Her locks were yellow as

groan)
gold:

With heavy thump, a life-
Her skin was as white as

less lump,

They dropped down one
leprosy,
The nightmare Life-in-

by one.
Death was she,

“The souls did from their But Life-in-Death Who thicks man's blood with cold.

They fled to bliss or woe! iner.

And every soul, it passed ci “The naked hulk alongside Death have diced

me by, for tbe ship's crew, and she (the lat.

195 | Like the whizz of my crosster) winneth the And the twain were casting

dice;
“The game is done! I've

Part IV
won, I've won!'

“I fear thee, ancient Mar- The WeddingQuoth she, and whistles L iner!

a spirit is talking to thrice.

I fear thy skinny hand! 225 him; No twilight within “The sun's rim dips; the

And thou art long, and the courts of the

lank, and brown,
stars rush out:
At one stride comes the

| As is the ribbed sea-sand.

200 “I fear thee and thy glitter-
With far-heard whisper, ing eye,
o'er the sea,

And thy skinny hand, so
Off shot the spectre-bark. I brown.”—

down dead.

220

begins her work on the ancient Mar

Death and Life-in

ancient Mariner.

bow!”

Guest seareth that

sun.

dark;

borrible penance.

and

fixedness

be

calm,

where the blue sky

and so many be

sea,

unannounced,

as

lay.

But the ancient “Fear not, fear not, thou | But oh! more horrible than
Mariner assureth
him of his bodily wedding-guest! 230 that
life, and proceed-
eth' to relate his This body dropt not down. Is the curse in a dead man's

eye!

260
“Alone, alone, all, all alone, Seven days, seven nights, I
Alone on a wide, wide sea! saw that curse,
And never a saint took | And yet I could not die.

pity on
My soul in agony.

“The moving moon went in
235

In his loneliness up the sky,

yearneth towards He despiseth the “The many men, so beau

And nowhere did abide: the journeying creatures of the

moon, and the stars Softly she was going up, 265 ; tiful!

that still sojourn. And they all dead did lie: And a star or two beside yet still move co

ward; and every. And a thousand thousand

*Her beams bemocked the belongs to them, slimy things

and is their apsultry main,

pointed rest, and Lived on; and so did I.

| Like April hoar-frost spread; try and their own

ike April hoar-frost spread: their native counAnd envieth that "I looked upon the rotting

But where the ship's huge natural homes, they should live,

shadow lay,

which they enter

240 dead.

The charmèd water burnt lords that are cerAnd drew my eyes away;

tainly expected; I looked upon the rotting

alway

270 and yet there is a A still and awful red.

silent joy at their deck,

arrival. And there the dead men “Beyond the shadow of By the light of the

moon he beholdetb the ship,

God's creatures of

the great calm. “I looked to heaven, and

I watched the water-snakes: the tried to pray;

They moved in tracks of

shining white, But or ever a prayer had

And when they reared, the gusht,

245

elfish light
A wicked whisper came, and
made

Fell off in hoary flakes.
My heart as dry as dust. “Within the shadow of

the ship
“I closed my lids, and kept

I watched their rich attire:
them close,

Blue, glossy green, and
And the balls like pulses

velvet black,
beat;

They coiled and swam;
For the sky and the sea,

and every track 280
and the sea and the

Was a flash of golden fire. sky,

250 Lay like a load on my weary “O happy living things! Their beauty and

their happiness. eye,

no tongue
And the dead were at my | Their beauty might declare:
feet.

A spring of love gushed

from my heart, But the curse liv. “The cold sweat melted And I blessed them un- He blesseth them eth for him in the

from their limbs, eye of the dead

aware!

285 Nor rot nor reek did they: | Sure my kind saint took The look with which they

I pity on me,
looked on me 255 | And I blessed them un-
Had never passed away. I aware.
“An orphan's curse would “The selfsame moment I The spell begins to
drag to hell

could pray;
A spirit from on high; | And from my neck so free

275

in his heart.

men.

break.

bio

Holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.

The Albatross fell off, and “And the coming wind did
sank

290

roar more loud,
Like lead into the sea. And the sails did sigh like

sedge;
PART V

And the rain poured down

from one black cloud;
“Oh sleep! it is a gentle The moon was at its edge.

thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!“The thick black cloud was
To Mary Queen the praise cleft, and still 322
be given!

The moon was at its side:
She sent the gentle sleep Like waters shot from some

from Heaven, 295 high crag,
That slid into my soul. The lightning fell with

never a jag, 325 By, grace of the “The silly buckets on the A river steep and wide.

deck, That had so long remained, “The loud wind never The bodies of the

ship's crew are inI dreamt that they were

reached the ship, spired, and the filled with dew;

Yet now the ship moved on! S

doni ship moves on; And when I awoke, it Beneath the lightning and rained.

the moon
300

The dead men gave a groan.
“My lips were wet, my
throat was cold,

“They groaned, they stirred,
My garments all were dank;

they all uprose, 331 Sure I had drunken in my

Nor spake, nor moved their

eyes;
dreams,

It had been strange, even
And still my body drank.

in a dream,
“I moved, and could not

To have seen those dead feel my limbs: 305

men rise. I was so light-almost

“The helmsman steered, I thought that I had died

the ship moved on; 335
in sleep,

Yet never a breeze up-blew;
And was a blessed ghost.

The mariners all 'gan work

the ropes, He heareth sounds “And soon I heard a roar

Where they were wont to ing wind:

do: tions in the sky It did not come anear; 310

They raised their limbs
But with its sound it shook

like lifeless tools-
the sails,

We were a ghastly crew.
That were so thin and sere.

“The body of my brother's
"The upper air burst into son

341 life!

Stood by me, knee to knee:
And a hundred fire-flags | The body and I pulled at
sheen,

one rope,
To and fro they were hur- | But he said nought to me.”

ried about;
And to and fro, and in and | “I fear thee, ancient Mar-
out,

iner!”

345 The wan stars danced be- "Be calm, thou Weddingtween.

Guest!

and seeth strange sights and commo

and the element.

315

nor by demons of

350

as

The

lonesome

south pole carries

still requireth ven

But not by the 'Twas not those souls that Slowly and smoothly went souls of the men,

the ship,

375 earth or middle Which to their corses came Moved onward from beair, but by a blessed troop of again,

neath. angelic spirits, sent down by the in- But a troop of spirits blest: vocation of the

“Under the keel nine guardian saint.

“For when it dawned fathom deep,

they dropped their | From the land of mist and
arms,

snow,
And clustered round the | The spirit slid; and it was the lonesome

Spirit from the mast;

he Sweet sounds rose slowly That made the ship to go. on the ship as far

as the Line, in through their mouths, The sails at noon left off obedience to the And

angelic troop, but from their bodies

their tune, passed.

And the ship stood still geance.

also.
“Around, around, flew each
sweet sound,

“The sun, right up above
Then darted to the sun; 355 the mast,
Slowly the sounds came | Had fixed her to the ocean;
back again,

But in a minute she 'gan
Now mixed, now one by

stir,

385 one.

With a short uneasy mo

tion-
“Sometimes a-dropping Backwards and forwards
from the sky

half her length,
I heard the skylark sing; | With a short uneasy mo-
Sometimes all little birds

tion.
that are, - 360
How they seemed to fill | “Then like a pawing horse
the sea and air

let go,
With their sweet jargoning! | She made a sudden bound:

It flung the blood into my
“And now 'twas like all

head,

391
instruments,

And I fell down in a swound.
Now like a lonely flute;
And now it is an angel's “How long in that same fit

The Polar Spirit's song,

365

I lay,
That makes the heavens be I have not to declare;
mute.

But ere my living life

returned, “It ceased; yet still the

I heard, and in my soul heavy for intere hath

I heard, and in my soul penance long and sails made on

discerned
A pleasant noise till noon,

Two voices in the air.
A noise like of a hidden

southward. brook

“Is it he?' quoth one,
In the leafy month of ‘is this the man?
June,

370 By Him who died on cross,
Thať to the sleeping woods with his cruel bow he laid
all night

full low

400
Singeth a quiet tune. The harmless Albatross.
“Till noon we quietly sailed “The spirit who bideth
on,

by himself
Yet never a breeze did | In the land of mist and
breathe:

snow,

fellow-demons, the invisible inhabitants of the elemeat, take part in his wrong, and two of them relate, one to the other, that

395

been the who

accorded to Polar Spirit,

returneth