Puslapio vaizdai
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The rock shone bright, the kirk no less

That stands above the rock:

The moonlight steeped in silentness

The steady weathercock.

And the bay was white with silent light,

Till rising from the same

Full many shapes, that shadows were,

In crimson colours came.

A little distance from the prow
Those crimson shadows were:

I turned my eyes upon the deck-
O Christ! what saw I there?

Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat;
And by the Holy rood

A man all light, a seraph-man,
On every corse there stood.

This seraph-band, each waved his hand :

It was a heavenly sight:

They stood as signals to the land,

Each one a lovely light :

This seraph-band, each waved his hand, No voice did they impart

No voice; but O! the silence sank

Like music on my heart.

But soon I heard the dash of oars,

I heard the pilot's cheer:

My head was turned perforce away,

And I saw a boat appear.

The pilot, and the pilot's boy,
I heard them coming fast:
Dear Lord in Heaven! it was a joy
The dead men could not blast.

I saw a third-I heard his voice :

It is the Hermit good!

He singeth loud his godly hymns

That he makes in the wood.

He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away The Albatross's blood.

VII.

"This Hermit good lives in that wood Which slopes down to the Sea.

How loudly his sweet voice he rears! He loves to talk with Mariners

That come from a far countrée.

He kneels at morn and noon and eveHe hath a cushion plump:

It is the moss that wholly hides

The rotted old Oak-stump.

The Skiff-boat ner'd: ́ I heard them talk, 'Why, this is strange, I trow!

Where are those lights so many and fair

That signal made but now?'

Strange, by my faith!' the Hermit saidAnd they answered not our cheer.

The planks look warped, and see those sails How thin they are and sere!

I never saw aught like to them

Unless perchance it were

The skeletons of leaves that lag

My forest brook along:

When the Ivy-tod is heavy with snow,

And the Owlet whoops to the wolf below

That eats the she-wolf's young.'

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