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 ere

He 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 said

And 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.'

- Dear Lord ! it has a fiendish look

(The pilot made reply) I am a-feared. - Push on, push on!'

Said the Hermit cheerily.

The Boat came closer to the Ship,

But I nor spake nor stirred:
The Boat came close beneath the Ship,

And straight a sound was heard.

Under the water it rambled on,

Still louder and more dread :

It reached the ship, it split the bay ;

The ship went down like lead.

Stunned by that loud and dreadful sound,

Which sky and ocean smote, Like one that hath been seven days drowned

My body lay afloat:

But, swift as dreams, myself I found

Within the Pilot's boat.

Upon the whirl, where sank the Ship,

The boat spun round and round, And all was still, save that the hill

Was telling of the sound.

I moved my lips : the Pilot shrieked

And fell down in a fit.
The Holy Hermit raised his eyes

And prayed where he did sit.

I took the oars : the Pilot's boy,

Who now doth crazy go, Laughed loud and long, and all the while

His eyes went to and fro, · Ha! ha!' quoth he full plain I see,

The devil knows how to row.'