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 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 noise like of a hidden brook In the leafy month of June, That to the sleeping woods all night Till noon we quietly sailed on, Slowly and smoothly went the ship, Under the keel nine fathom deep, The sun, right up above the mast, Backwards and forwards half her length Then like a pawing horse let go, How long in that same fit I lay, But ere my living life returned, "Is it he ?" quoth one, "Is this the man? By him who died on cross, The lonesome spirit from the south pole carries on the ship as far as the line, in obedience to the angelic troop, but still requireth ven geance. The Polar spirit's fellow demons, the invisible inhabitants of the element, take part in his wrong; and two of them relate, one to the other, that penance long and heavy for the ancient Mariner hath been accorded to the Polar spirit, who returneth southward. With his cruel bow he laid full low "The spirit who bideth by himself He loved the bird that loved the man The other was a softer voice, As soft as honey-dew: Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, PART VI. FIRST VOICE. BUT tell me, tell me! speak again, Thy soft response renewing What makes that ship drive on so fast? 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; 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! For slow and slow that ship will go, I woke, and we were sailing on "Twas night, calm night, the moon was high; The dead men stood together. All stood together on the deck, For a charnel-dungeon fitter: All fixed on me their stony eyes, That in the moon did glitter. The pang, the curse, with which they died, The Mariner hath been cast into a trance; for the angelic power causeth the vessel to drive northward faster than human life could endure. The supernatural motion is retarded; the Mariner awakes, and his penance begins anew. I could not draw my eyes from their... 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, th... on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread. But soon there breathed a wind on me, Its path was not upon the sea, It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze— |