VI. FIRST VOICE. "But tell me, tell me! speak again, Thy soft response renewing What makes that ship drive on so fast? What is the Ocean doing?' SECOND VOICE. Still as a Slave before his Lord, The Ocean hath no blast: His great bright eye most silently Up to the moon is cast If he may know which way to go, She looketh down on him.' FIRST VOICE. 'But why drives on that ship so fast Without or wave or wind?' SECOND VOICE. 'The air is cut away before, And closes from behind. Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high, Or we shall be belated: For slow and slow that ship will go, When the Mariner's trance is abated.' VOL. I. "I woke, and we were sailing on As in a gentle weather : 'Twas night, calm night, the moon was high; The dead men stood together. All stood together on the deck, The pang, the curse, with which they died, Had never passed away; I could not draw my eyes from theirs, Nor turn them up to pray. And now this spell was snapt: once more I viewed the ocean green, And looked far forth, yet little saw Of what had else been seen Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round, walks on Because he knows, a frightful fiend But soon there breathed a wind on me, Nor sound nor motion made: Its path was not upon the sea In ripple or in shade. It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek, Like a meadow-gale of spring It mingled strangely with my fears, Yet it felt like a welcoming. 12 Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, Yet she sailed softly too: Sweetly, sweetly blew the breezeOn me alone it blew. O dream of joy! is this indeed Is this the Hill? Is this the Kirk? We drifted o'er the Harbour-bar, O let me be awake, my God! The harbour-bay was clear as glass, And the shadow of the moon. |