I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.

I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
But or ever a prayer had gusht,
A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.

I closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat ;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and

the sky
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.

The cold sweat melted from their

limbs, Nor rot nor reek did they: The look with which they looked on

But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men.

me

Had never passed away.

An orphan's curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high ;
But oh! more horrible than that
Is the curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that

curse,
And yet I could not die.

:

In his lone. The moving Moon went up the sky,
fixedness And nowhere did abide :
he yearneth
towards the Softly she was going up,
journeying
Moon, and And a star or two beside
the stars
that still
sojourn, yet still move onward; and everywhere the blue sky be-
longs to them, and is their appointed rest, and their native country
and their own natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords
that are certainly expected, and yet there is a silent joy at their
arrival.

Her beams bemocked the sultry main,
Like April hoar-frost spread;
But where the ship's huge shadow lay,
The charmed water burnt alway
A still and awful red.

Moon

eth God's

By the luglit Beyond the shadow of the ship,
he behold- I watched the water-snakes :
creatures of They moved in tracks of shining white,

And when they reared, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

the great calm.

Within the shadow of the ship
I watched their rich attire :
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam ; and every

track Was a flash of golden fire.

Their beau-O happy living things ! no tongue
ty and their
happiness. Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gushed from my heart, He blesseth And I blessed them unaware •

Sure
my

kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.

them in his heart.

The spell begins to break.

The selfsame moment I could pray ;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.

PART v.

Op sleep! it is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!
To Mary Queen the praise be given !
She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,
That slid into my soul.

The silly buckets on the deck,

By grace of

the holy That had so long remained,

Mother, the I dreamt that they were filled with dew ; riner is reAnd when I awoke, it rained.

ancient Ma

freshed with rain.

My lips were wet, my throat was cold,
My garments all were dank;
Sure I had drunken in my dreams,
And still my body drank.

I moved, and could not feel my limbs :
I was so light-almost
I thought that I had died in sleep,
And was a blessed ghost.
VOL. I.

9

He heareth And soon I heard a roaring wind :

It did not come anear ; sights and But with its sound it shook the sails, in the sky That were so thin and sere.

Feeth strange

commotions

and the element.

The

upper air burst into life!
And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
To and fro they were hurried about !
And to and fro, and in and out,
The wan stars danced between.

And the coming wind did roar more

loud,
And the sails did sigh like sedge ;
And the rain poured down from one

black cloud ;
The moon was at its edge.

:

The thick black cloud was cleft, and

still
The moon was at its side :
Like waters shot from some high

crag,
The lightning fell with never a jag,
A river steep and wide.

crew are

The bodies The loud wind never reached the of the ship's

ship,
inspired,
and the ship Yet now the ship moved on!
moves 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.

The body of my

brother's son
Stood by me, knee to knee:
The body and I pulled at one rope,
But he said nought to me.”

the souls of the men, nor

troop of an

“I fear thee, ancient Mariner !”

But not by “ Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!

by demons 'Twas not those souls that fled in pain, of earth or

middle air, Which to their corses came again,

but by a

blessed But a troop of spirits blest:

gelic spirits, For when it dawned—they dropped their by the invoarms,

guardian And clustered round the mast; Sweet sounds rose slowly through their

mouths, And from their bodies passed.

sent down

saint.