motion is retarded;

awakes, and

his

410

expiated.

He loved the bird that “I woke, and we were

The supernatural loved the man

sailing on,

430 the Mariner Who shot him with his | As in a gentle weather:

penance begins bow.'

405 'Twas night, calm night, anew. “The other was a softer

the moon was high;

The dead men stood to-
voice,
As soft as honey-dew:

gether.
Quoth he, ‘The man hath “All stood together on the
penance done,

deck,
And penance more will do.'

For a charnel-dungeon fitter:
PART VI

All fixed on me their stony
eyes,

436
First Voice

That in the moon did glitter.
“But tell me, tell me!
speak again,

“The pang, the curse, with
Thy soft response renew-

which they died, ing

Had never passed away: What makes that ship drive I could not draw my eyes on so fast?

from theirs,

440
What is the ocean doing?' | Nor turn them up to pray.
Second Voice “And now this spell was The curse is finally

snapt: once more
"Still as a slave before I viewed the ocean green,
his lord,

And looked far forth, yet
The ocean hath no blast;

little saw
His great bright eye most

Of what had else been seen-
silently

416
Up to the moon is cast ¡ “Like one, that on a lone-
“If he may know which

446
way to go;

Doth walk in fear and dread,
For she guides him, smooth And having once turned
or grim.

round, walks on,
See, brother, see! how gra- | And turns no more his
ciously

420

head;
She looketh down on him.' Because he knows a fright-

ful fiend

450 First Voice

Doth close behind him The Mariner hath “But why drives on that

tread. ship so fast, gelic power causeth

“But soon there breathed the vessel to drive Without or wave or wind?'

a wind on me, tban buman life Second Voice

Nor sound nor motion made: “The air is cut away

Its path was not upon the

sea,
before,
And closes from behind.

In ripple or in shade. 455
“'Fly, brother, fly! more “It raised my hair, it

high, more high! 426 fanned my cheek
Or we shall be belated: Like a meadow-gale of
For slow and slow that ship spring-
will go,

It mingled strangely with
When the Mariner's trance my fears,
is abated.'

| Yet it felt like a welcoming.

been cast into a trance; for the an

northward

faster

could endure.

Mariner beholdeth

470

boy,

“Swiftly, swiftly flew the “This seraph-band, each
ship,

1 460 I waved his hand:
Yet she sailed softly too: It was a heavenly sight!
Sweetly, sweetly blew the They stood as signals to
breeze

the land,
On me alone it blew. Each one a lovely light:
And the ancient “Oh! dream of joy! is this

“This seraph-band, each his native country. indeed

waved his hand, The lighthouse top I see?

496

| No voice did they impartIs this the hill? is this the

No voice; but oh! the kirk?

466

silence sank
Is this mine own countree?

Like music on my heart.
“We drifted o'er the harbor-
bar,

“But soon I heard the
And I with sobs did pray 1 dash of oars, 500
'O let me be awake, my | I heard the pilot's cheer;
God!

My head was turned per-
Or let me sleep alway.'

force away,
“The harbor-bay was clear | And I saw a boat appear.

as glass,
So smoothly it was strewn!

| “The pilot, and the pilot's
And on the bay the moon-
light lay,

I heard them coming fast:
And the shadow of the

Dear Lord in Heaven! it
moon.

was a joy

506 475

The dead men could not
“The rock shone bright, blast.

the kirk no less,
That stands above the rock: “I saw a third-I heard his
The moonlight steeped in

voice:
silentness

It is the Hermit good!
The steady weathercock. He singeth loud his godly
“And the bay was white hymns

510 leave the dead with silent light, 480

That he makes in the wood.
bodies.
Till rising from the same,

He'll shrieve my soul, he'll
Full many shapes, that

wash away
shadows were,

The Albatross's blood.
In crimson colors came.

PART VII And appear in their “A little distance from the "This Hermit good lives The Hermit of the prow

in that wood Those crimson shadows

Which slopes down to the
were:

485
sea.

515
I turned my eyes upon the

How loudly his sweet voice deck

he rears! Oh, Christ! what saw I

He loves to talk with mari-
there!

neres
“Each corse lay flat, life- That come from a far
less and flat,

countree.
And, by the holy rood!
A man all light, a seraph- “He kneels at morn, and
man,

noon, and eve-
On every corse there stood. He hath a cushion plump:

The angelic spirits

own forms of light.

wood.

490

iner

is

saved

in

era

sit.

It is the moss that wholly “Stunned by that loud and The ancient Marhides

521 dreadful sound, 550 the Pilot's boat. The rotted old oak-stump. Which sky and ocean smote,

Like one that hath been
“ The skiff-boat neared: I seven days drowned,

heard them talk, My body lay afloat;
"Why, this is strange, I But swift as dreams, my-
trow!

self I found
Where are those lights so Within the pilot's boat. 555

many and fair, 525
That signal made but now?'

“Upon the whirl, where

sank the ship,
Approacheth the “Strange, by my faith!' | The boat spun round and
ship with wonder.
the Hermit said,

round;
“And they answered not our And all was still, save that
cheer!

the hill
The planks look warped! Was telling of the sound.

and see those sails,
How thin they are and sere!

"I moved my lips—the I never saw aught like to

pilot shrieked, 560

And fell down in a fit; them,

531 Unless perchance it were

The holy Hermit raised his

eyes,
“Brown skeletons of And prayed where he did

leaves that lag
My forest-brook along: “I took the oars: the pilot's
When the ivy-tod is heavy

boy,
with snow, 535

Who now doth crazy go,
And the owlet whoops to

Laughed loud and long,
the wolf below,

and all the while 566 That eats the she-wolf's

His eyes went to and fro. young.'

'Ha! ha!' quoth he, 'full “Dear Lord! it hath a la

I plain I see,
fiendish look'-

The Devil knows how to
(The pilot made reply)
'I am a-feared'-'Push on, “And now, all in my own
push on!'

540

countree, Said the Hermit cheerily. I

I stood on the firm land! “The boat came closer to

The Hermit stepped forth

from the boat,
the ship,
But I nor spake nor stirred;

And scarcely he could stand.
The boat came close be “O shrieve me, shrieve me, The ancient Mar-
neath the ship,

holy man! And straight a sound was

mit to shrieve him; The Hermit crossed his and the penance of heard.

brow.

life falls on him. The ship suddenly “Under the water it rum

"Say quick,' quoth he, “I

bid thee say“
bled on,

What manner of man art
Still louder and more dread:

thou?'
It reached the ship, it
split the bay;

“Forthwith this frame of
The ship went down like I mine was wrenched
lead.

| With a woeful agony,

row.'

iner earnestly entreateth the Her

545

575

sinketh.

bis own example. love and reverence

God made and loveth.

Which forced me to begin Old men, and babes, and
my tale;

580 loving friends,
And then it left me free. And youths and maidens

I gay!
And ever and anon “Since then at an uncer-
throughout his fu-
ture life an agony tain hour,

“Farewell, farewell! but And to teach, by constraineth him

this I tell to travel from land to land,

And tilī my ghastly tale is To thee, thou Wedding- to all things that
told,

Guest!
This heart within me burns. He prayeth well, who

loveth well
“I pass, like night, from

Both man and bird and land to land;

beast.

586 I have strange power of

“He prayeth best, who
speech;

loveth best
That moment that his face
I see,

| All things both great and
I know the man that must

small;

615
hear me:

For the 'dear God who
To him my tale I teach. 590

loveth us,

He made and loveth all.” “What loud uproar bursts

The Mariner, whose eye from that door:

is bright, The wedding-guests are

Whose beard with age is there;

hoar, But in the garden-bower

Is gone; and now the Wedthe bride

ding-Guest 620
And bride-maids singing

| Turned from the bride-
are;
And hark the little vesper

groom's door.
bell,

595 Which biddeth me to

He went like one that hath

been stunned, prayer!

And is of sense forlorn:

A sadder and a wiser man
“O Wedding-Guest! this He rose the morrow morn.

soul hath been
Alone on a wide, wide sea:
So lonely 'twas, that God

FROST AT MIDNIGHT
himself

The frost performs its secret ministry, Scarce seemèd there to be. | Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry

Came loud-and hark, again! loud as be“O sweeter than the mar fore.

riage-feast, 601 The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, 'Tis sweeter far to me, Have left me to that solitude, which suits; To walk together to the Abstruser musings: save that at my side kirk

My cradled infant slumbers peacefully. With a goodly company!- 'Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it dis

turbs “To walk together to the And vexes meditation with its strange kirk,

605 And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and And all together pray, wood,

10 While each to his great This populous village! Sea, and hill, and Father bends,

wood,

20

With all the numberless goings on of life Fill up the interspersèd vacancies Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame And momentary pauses of the thought! Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not; | My babe so beautiful! it thrills my heart Only that film, which fluttered on the With tender gladness, thus to look at grate, 15 thee,

50 Still futters there, the sole unquiet thing. And think that thou shalt learn far other Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature lore Gives it dim sympathies with me who live, And in far other scenes! For I was reared Making it a companionable form,

In the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim, Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling And saw naught lovely but the sky and Spirit

stars. By its own moods interprets, everywhere But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a Echo or mirror seeking of itself,

breeze

55 And makes a toy of Thought.

By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the

But oh! how oft, crags How oft, at school, with most believing Of ancient mountain, and beneath the mind,

25

clouds, Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars, Which image in their bulk both lakes and To watch that fluttering stranger! and as shores oft

And mountain crags: so shalt thou see and With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt hear Of my sweet birth-place, and the old The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible church-tower,

Of that eternal language, which thy God 61 Whose bells, the poor man's only music, Utters, who from eternity doth teach rang

Himself in all, and all things in himself. From mom to evening, all the hot Fair Great universal Teacher! he shall mould day,

Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask. 65 So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to me

thee, With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear Whether the summer clothe the general Most like articulate sounds of things to earth

With greenness, or the redbreast sit and So gazed I, till the soothing things I

sing dreamt

Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my branch dreams!

Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh And so I brooded all the following morn, thatch

70 Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eye

eavedrops fall Fixed with mock study on my swimming Heard only in the trances of the blast, book:

Or if the secret ministry of frost Save if the door half opened, and I Shall hang them up in silent icicles, snatched

Quietly shining to the quiet moon. 75 A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped

30

come!

35

40

up

For still I hoped to see the stranger's face,

HYMN Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved,

BEFORE SUNRISE IN THE VALE My play-mate when we both were clothed

OF CHAMOUNI alike! Dear babe, that sleepest cradled by my Hast thou a charm to stay the morningside,

45 I star Whose gentle breathings, heard in this In his steep course? So long he seems deep calm,