390

The wedding-guest is spellbound by the eye of the old sea

THE ANCIENT MARINER.

"The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin ;

The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand,
“There was a ship," quoth he.

"Hold off! unhand me, graybeard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

He holds him with his glittering eye,
The wedding-guest stood still,

And listens like a three-years' child :

faring man, The mariner hath his will.

and con

strained to hear kis

tale.

The mariner tells

The wedding-guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear ;

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed mariner.

The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top.

The sun came up upon the left,

how the ship Out of the sea came he;

Bailed

Bouthward,

with a good And he shone bright, and on the right

wind and

fair weath- Went down into the sea.

er, till it

reached the lias,

The wed

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The wedding-guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

ding-guest The bride hath paced into the hall, heareth the Red as a rose is she;

bridal mu

Nodding their heads, before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The wedding-guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed mariner.

And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong;

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe
And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold;

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen;

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken:
The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around :

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,

Like noises in a swound.

At length did cross an albatross,

Thorough the fog it came :

sic; but the mariner continueth his tale.

The ship drawn by a storm to. ward the

south pole.

The land of

ice and of fearful sounds,

where no living thing was to be seen.

Till a great sea-bird, called the albatross,

392

came

THE ANCIENT MARINER.

through the As if it had been a Christian soul,

snow-fog,

and was received with

great joy

We hailed it in God's name.

and hospi- It ate the food it ne'er had eat,

tality.

And, lo! the

albatross proveth a

bird of good

omen, and

followeth

the ship as

it returned northward

And round and round it flew.

The ice did split with a thunder-fit ;
The helmsman steered us through.

And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo.

through fog, In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,

and floating

ice.

It perched for vespers nine ;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moonshine.

His ship

mates cry

PART II.

THE sun now rose upon the right :

Out of the sea came he,

Stil. hid in mist, and on the left

Went down into the sea.

And the good south wind still blew behind,

But no sweet bird did follow,

Nor any day, for food or play,

Came to the mariner's hollo.

And I had done a hellish thing,

out against And it would work 'em woe;

the ancient

For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow:

Ah, wretch! said they, the bird to slay
That made the breeze to blow!

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious sun uprist;

Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist :

'T was right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,

'T was sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

All in a hot and copper sky,

The bloody sun at noon

Right up above the mast did stand,

No bigger than the moon.

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

mariner for killing the bird of good luck.

But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make them. selves ac

complices in the crime.

The fair breeze con. tinues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails northward even till it reaches the line.

The ship hath been suddenly becalmed.

And the albatross begins to ba avenged.

394

THE ANCIENT MARINER.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!

That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout,
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.

A spirit had And some in dreams assurèd were

followed

them, one of Of the spirit that plagued us so;

the invisible

inhabitants Nine fathom deep he had followed us

of this plan

et, neither From the land of mist and snow.

departed

souls nor

angels concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or ele ment without one or more.

The ship

mates, in their sore distress,

would fain

throw the

And every tongue, through utter drought,

Was withered at the root;

We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.

Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young !
Instead of the cross, the albatross

whole guilt About my neck was hung.

on the an

cient mari

ner; in sign

whereof,

they hang the dead sea-bird

round his neck.

The an

cient mar

PART III.

THERE passed a weary time. Each throat
Was parched, and glazed each eye.

A weary time! a weary time!

How glazed each weary eye,

iner behold. When, looking westward, I beheld

eth a sign in

the element A something in the sky.

afar of.