The wedding. guest is spellbound by the eye of the old sea-faring man, and constrained to hear his tale. The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the line. He holds him with his glittering eye The wedding-guest stood still, And listens like a three years The Mariner hath his will. child: The wedding-guest sat on a stone: He can not chuse but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, The bright-eyed mariner. The ship was cheer'd, the harbour clear'd, Merrily did we drop Below the kirk, below the hill, Below the light-house top. The Sun came up upon the left, Out of the sea came he; And he shone bright, and on the right Went down into the sea. Higher and higher every day, Till over the mast at noon The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, For he heard the loud bassoon. 1 The bride hath paced into the hall, Nodding their heads before her goes The merry minstrelsy. The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, Yet he can not chuse but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, The weddingguest heareth the bridal music; but the mariner continueth his tale. 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, Still treads the shadow of his foe And forward bends his head, The ship drove fast, loud roar'd the blast, And southward aye we fled. And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wonderous cold: The ship drawn by a storm toward the south pole. The land of ice, and of be seen. And ice, mast-high, came floating by, And through the drifts the snowy clift Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken― The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roar'd and howl'd, Like noises in a swound! Till a great sea-bird, called the Abaltross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality. At length did cross an Albatross : As if it had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God's name. It ate the food it ne'er had eat, The ice did split with a thunder-fit; 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! In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, It perch'd for vespers nine; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white Moon-shine. "God save thee, ancient Mariner ! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!- bow I shot the ALBATROSS! And lo! the Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returned northward, through fog and floating ice. The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen. And the good south wind still blew behind, But no sweet bird did follow, Nor any day for food or play Came to the mariners' hollo! His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner,for killing the bird of good luck. And I had done an hellish thing, And it would work 'em woe: For all averred, I had killed the bird That made the breeze to blow. Ah wretch! said they, the bird to sla |