The many men so beautiful,

And they all dead did lie !.
And a million million slimy things

Liv'd on—and so did I.

I look'd upon the rotting Sea,

And drew my eyes away ;
I look'd upon the eldritch deck,

And there the dead men lay.

I look'd to Heaven, and try'd to pray ;

But or ever a prayer had gusht, A wicked whisper came and made

My heart as dry as dust.

I clos'd my lids and kept them close,

Till 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

The cold sweat melted from their limbs,

Ne rot, ne reek did they ; The look with which they look'd on me,

Had never pass'd away.

An orphan's curse would drag to Hell

A spirit from on high :
But O! 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.

The moving Moon went up the sky

And no where did abide : Softly she was going up

And a star or two beside

Her beams bemock'd the sultry main

Like morning frosts yspread; But where the ship's huge shadow lay, The charmed water burnt alway

A still and awful red.

Beyond the shadow of the ship

I watch'd the water-snakes : They mov'd in tracks of shining white; And when they rear'd, the elfish light

Fell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watch'd their rich attire : Blue, glossy green, and velvet black They coil'd and swam; and every track

Was a flash of golden fire.

O happy living things ! no tongue

Their beauty might declare : A spring of love gusht from my heart,

And I bless'd them unaware ! Sure my

kind saint took pity on me, And I bless'd them unaware.

The self-same moment I could pray ;

And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea.

O sleep, it is a gentle thing

Belov'd from pole to pole! To Mary-queen the praise be yeven She sent the gentle sleep from heaven That slid into

my

soul.

The silly buckets on the deck

That had so long remain'd, I dreamt that they were fill'd with dew

And when I awoke it rain'd.

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.