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THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

IN SEVEN PARTS.

FACILE credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles in rerum universitate. Sed horum omnium familiam quis nobis enarrabit, et gradus et cognationes et discrimina et singulorum munera ? Quid agunt? quæ loca habitant? Harum rerum notitiam semper ambivit ingenium humanum, nunquam attigit. Juvat, interea, non diffiteor, quandoque in animo, tanquam in tabulâ, majoris et melioris mundi imaginem contemplari : ne mens assuefacta hodiernæ vitæ minutiis se contrahat

nimis, et tota subsidat in pusillas cogitationes. Sed veritati interea invigilandum est, modusque servandus, ut certa ab incertis, diem a nocte, distinguamus.

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It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.

"By thy long gray beard and glittering cye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ?

"The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin ;

The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din."

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An ancient Mariner meeteth three gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one.

The wedding
guest is spell-
bound by the
eye of the old
sea-faring
man, and
constrained
to hear his
tale.

The Mariner
tells how the
ship sailed
southward
with a good
wind and fair
weather, till
it reached the
line.

He holds him with his skinny hand,

"There was a ship," quoth he.

"Hold off! unhand me, gray-beard loon!" Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

He holds him with his glittering eye—
The wedding-guest stood still,

And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.

The wedding-guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner.

The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top.

The sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!

And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The wedding-guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The wedding The bride hath paced into the hall,

guest heareth

the bridal

music; but

Red as a rose is he;

Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The wedding-guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along,

With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.

And now there came both mist and snow,

And it grew wondrous cold:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-
The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:

the mariner continueth his tale.

The ship drawn by a storm toward the south pole.

The land of ice, and of fearful sounds where no living thing was to be seen.

Till a great sea-bird, called the albatross,

came through the snow-fog,

and was received with great joy and hospitality.

And lo! the albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returned northward through

fog and floating ice.

The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen.

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross an albatross,
Through the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.

The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine.

"God save thee, ancient Mariner!

From the fiends, that plague thee thus !—
Why look'st thou so ?"—With my cross-bow
I shot the albatross.

PART II.

THE sun now rose upon the right:

Out of the sea came he,

Still hid in mist, and on the left

Went down into the sea.

And the good south wind still blew behind,

But no sweet bird did follow,

Nor any day for food or play

Came to the mariner's hollo!

And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.

Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious sun uprist:

Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good luck.

But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves ac

complices in the crime.

The fair breeze continues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails northward, even till it reaches

the Line.

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