The ship hath Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, been sudden ly becalmed. And the albatross begins to be avenged. A spirit had followed them; one of the invisible 'Twas sad as sad could be ; And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea! All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody sun, at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the moon. Day after day, day after day, Water, water, every where, The very deep did rot: O Christ! That ever this should be! Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea. About, about, in reel and rout And some in dreams assured were Nine fathom deep he had followed us inhabitants parted souls concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no cli mate or element without one or more. And every tongue, through utter drought, We could not speak, no more than if Ah! well a-day! what evil looks PART III.. THERE passed a weary time. Each throat Was parched, and glazed each eye. At first it seemed a little speck, It moved and moved, and took at last The shipmates, in their sore distress, would fain throw the whole guilt on the ancient Mariner: in sign. whereof they hång the dead sea-bird round his neck. The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off. At its nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship; and at a dear ransom he freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst. A flash of joy; And horror follows. For can it be a ship that comes on ward without wind or tide? It seemeth him but the skeleton of a A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, Through utter drought all dumb we stood! And cried, A sail! a sail! With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, Gramercy! they for joy did grin, And all at once their breath drew in, See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more! Without a breeze, without a tide, The western wave was all a-flame. Almost upon the western wave Rested the broad bright sun; When that strange shape drove suddenly Betwixt us and the sun. •And straight the sun was flecked with bars, (Heaven's Mother send us grace!) ship. As if through a dungeon-grate he peered Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud) Are those her sails that glance in the sun, Are those her ribs through which the sun And is that woman all her crew? Her lips were red, her looks were free, The naked hulk alongside came, The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out; We listened and looked sideways up! And its ribs are seen as bars on the face of the setting sun. The spectrewoman and her deathmate, and no other on board the skeletonship. Like vessel, like crew! Death and Life-in-death have diced for the ship's crew, and she (the latter) winneth the ancient Mariner. No twilight within the courts of the sun. At the rising of the moon. One after another, His shipmates drop down dead. But Life-inDeath begins ber work on the ancient Mariner. My life-blood seemed to sip! The stars were dim, and thick the night, The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white: Till clomb above the eastern bar The horned moon, with one bright star One after one, by the star-dogged moon, Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, Four times fifty living men, The souls did from their bodies fly,- And every soul, it passed me by, Like the whizz of my cross-bow! PART IV. The wedding "I FEAR thee, ancient Mariner! guest feareth that a spirit is talking to him. I fear thy skinny hand! And thou art long, and lank, and brown, For the last two lines of this stanza, I am indebted to |