V.

“O sleep, it is a gentle thing

Beloved from pole to pole! To Mary-queen the praise be given, She sent the gentle sleep from heaven

That slid into my soul.

The silly buckets on the deck

That had so long remained, I dreamt that they were filled with dew,

And when I awoke it rained.

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.

I moved and could not feel my limbs,

I was so light, almost
I thought that I had died in sleep,

And was a blessed Ghost.

And soon I heard a roaring wind,

It did not come anear ;

But with its sound it shook the sails

That were so thin and sere.

The
upper

air burst into life,
And a hundred fire-flags sheen
To and fro they were hurried about ;
And to and fro, and in and out

The wan stars danced between.

And the coming wind did roar more loud ;

And the sails did sigh like sedge : And the rain poured down from one black cloud

The moon was at its edge.

The thick black cloud was cleft, and still

The Moon was at its side :

Like waters shot from some high crag,
The lightning fell with never a jag

A river steep and wide.

The loud wind never reached the Ship,

Yet now the Ship moved on! Beneath the lightning and the moon

The dead men gave a groan.

They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,

Nor spake, nor moved their eyes : It had been strange, even in a dream

To have seen those dead men rise.

The helmsman steered, the ship moved on;

Yet never a breeze up-blew;
The Mariners all 'gan work the ropes,

Where they were wont to do :
They raised their limbs like lifeless tools

We were a ghastly crew.

The body of my

brother's son Stood by me knee to knee: The body and I pulled at one rope,

But he said nought to me."

“ I fear thee, ancient Mariner !"

“ Be calm, thou wedding-guest ! 'Twas not those souls, that fled in pain, Which to their corses came again,

But a troop of Spirits blest :

For when it dawned they dropped their arms,

And clustered round the mast : Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,

And from their bodies passed.

Around, around, flew each sweet sound,

Then darted to the sun :
Slowly the sounds came back again

Now mixed, now one by one.

Sometimes a-dropping from the sky

I heard the Sky-lark sing ;

Sometimes all little birds that are

How they seemed to fill the sea and air

With their sweet jargoning!

And now 'twas like all instruments,

Now like a lonely flute : And now it is an angel's song

That makes the heavens be mute.

It ceased : yet still the sails made on

A pleasant noise till noon,
A noise like of a hidden brook

In the leafy month of June,
That to the sleeping woods all night

Singeth a quiet tune.