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

make them

Then all averr'd, I had kill'd the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, plices in the
That bring the fog and mist.

selves accom

crime.

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The fair

The furrow stream'd off free;

We were the first that ever burst

breeze continues, the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails northward, even

Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt till it reaches

'Twas sad as sad could be ;

[down,

the Line.
The ship hath
been sudden-
ly becalmed.

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,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

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
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green and blue and white.

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

And the Albatross begins to be avenged.

A spirit had followed

And some in dreams assured were them; one of Of the spirit that plagued us so : Nine fathom deep he had followed us

the invisible

inhabitants

of this planet, From the land of mist and snow.

neither de

parted souls nor angels; concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or element without one or more.

And every tongue, through utter drouth,
Was wither'd at the root;

We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the Cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

The shipmates, in their sore distress, would fain throw the whole guilt on the ancient Mariner; in sign whereof they hang the

PART III.

dead sea-bird There pass'd a weary time.

round his neck.

Was parch'd, and glazed each eye. A weary time! A weary time! How glazed each weary eye! When looking westward, I beheld holdeth a sign A something in the sky.

The ancient

Mariner be

in the ele

ment afar off. At first it seem'd a little speck,

And then it seem'd a mist;

It moved and moved, and took at last
A certain shape, I wist.

Each throat

A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!
And still it near'd and near'd:
And as if it dodged a water-sprite,
It plunged and tack'd and veer'd.

At its nearer With throats unslaked, with black lips approach, it seemeth him We could nor laugh nor wail; [baked,

to be a ship; Through utter drought all dumb we stood!

and at a

ransom he freeth his

speech from And cried, A sail! a sail!

the bonds of thirst.

I bit my arm, I suck'd the blood,

[baked,

With throats unslaked, with black lips
Agape they heard me call:
Gramercy! they for joy did grin,
And all at once their breath drew in,
As they were drinking all.

See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more!
Hither to work us weal;

Without a breeze, without a tide,
She steadies with upright keel!

The western wave was all a-flame,
The day was well-nigh done!
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun;
When that strange shape drove suddenly

Betwixt us and the Sun.

Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)
How fast she nears and nears!

Are those her sails that glance in the Sun,
Like restless gossameres?

And straight the Sun was fleck'd with bars, It seemeth (Heaven's Mother send us grace!)

him but the skeleton of a

ship.

As if through a dungeon-grate he peer'd,
With broad and burning face.

Did peer, as through a grate?

And is that Woman all her crew?

Is that a Death? and are there two?
Is Death that woman's mate?

A flash of joy;

Are those her ribs through which the Sun 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 skeleton ship. Like vessel, like crew!

Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Night-mare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.

And horror follows. For can it be a ship that

comes on

ward without wind or tide?

Death and
Life-in-

Death have

diced for the ship's crew, and she (the latter) winneth the

ancient

Mariner.

At the rising of the Moon,

One after another,

No twilight At one stride comes the dark;

within the courts of the

sun.

His shipmates drop down dead.

The naked hulk alongside came,

And the twain were casting dice;

6

The game is done! I've won, I've won!'
Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out:

With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea,
Off shot the spectre-bark.

We listen'd and look'd sideways up!
Fear at my heart, as at a cup,

My life-blood seem'd to sip!

The stars were dim, and thick the night,
The steersman's face by his lamp gleam'd

white;

From the sails the dew did drip-
Till clomb above the eastern bar
The horned Moon, with one bright star
Within the nether tip.

One after one, by the star-dogg'd Moon,
Too quick for groan or sigh,

Each turn'd his face with a ghastly pang,
And cursed me with his eye.

Four times fifty living men,
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan)
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropp'd down one by one.

But Life-in- The souls did from their bodies fly,

Death begins They fled to bliss or woe!

her on

the ancient Mariner.

And every soul, it pass'd me by,
Like the whizz of my cross-bow!

PART IV.

'I fear thee, ancient Mariner !

I fear thy skinny hand!

The Wedding-Guest feareth that a

And thou art long, and lank, and brown, spirit is talking to him; As is the ribb'd sea-sand.

I fear thee and thy glittering eye,

And thy skinny hand, so brown.'

Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest !
This body dropt not down.

Alone, alone, all all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.

The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things

Lived on; and so did I.

I look'd upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I look'd upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

I look'd to Heaven, and tried to pray;
But or ever a prayer had gusht,

A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.

I closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat;

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and

the sky

Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.

The cold sweat melted from their limbs,
Nor rot nor reek did they:

The look with which they look'd on me
Had never pass'd away.

But the ancient Mariner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to

relate his horrible penance

He despiseth the creatures of the calm.

And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.

But the curse

liveth for him in the eye of

the dead

men.