IV. "I fear thee, ancient Mariner ! I fear thy skinny hand; As is the ribbed Sea-sand. I fear thee and thy glittering eye And thy skinny hand so brown"“Fear not, fear not, thou wedding-guest ! This body dropt not down. Alone, alone, all all alone, Alone on the wide wide Sea; And Christ would take no pity on My soul in agony. 2 The many men so beautiful, And they all dead did lie ! Lived on and so did I. I looked upon the rotting Sea, And drew my eyes away; And there the dead men lay. 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, 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 feet. The cold sweat melted from their limbs, Nor rot nor reek did they ; The look with which they looked on me, Had never passed away. An orphan's curse would drag to Hell A spirit from on high : 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 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. Beyond the shadow of the ship I watched the water-snakes : They moved in tracks of shining white; And when they reared, the elfish light Fell off in hoary flakes. 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. O happy living things ! no tongue Their beauty might declare : A spring of love gusht from my heart, And I blessed them unaware ! Sure my kind saint took pity on me, And I blessed 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. |