one after another,

his ship-mates drop down dead.

But Life-in

Death begins her work on the Ancient Mariner.

One after one, by the star-dogged Moon,
Too quick for groan or sigh,

Each turned 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 dropped down one by one.

The souls did from their bodies fly,-
They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it passed me by,
Like the whizz of my cross-bow!"

The WeddingGuest feareth that a spirit is talking to him;

but the Ancient Mariner assureth

PART IV.

"I FEAR thee, Ancient Mariner!

I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou art long, and lank, and brown,
As is the ribbed sea-sand.

I fear thee and thy glittering eye,

And thy skinny hand so brown."—
"Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest!

him of his bodily This body dropt not down.

life, and proceedeth to relate

his horrible pen

ance.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide, wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.

He despiseth the The many men so beautiful!

creatures of the

calm;

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.

I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;

I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

I looked 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.

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

The cold sweat melted from their limbs, liveth for him in

Nor rot nor reek did they:

The look with which they looked on me

Had never passed away.

An orphan's curse would drag to hell

A spirit from on high;

But oh! more horrible than that

Is a curse in a dead man's eye!

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that

curse,

And yet I could not die.

The moving Moon went up the sky,

And nowhere did abide :
Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside

sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest, and their native natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords that are yet there is a silent joy at their arrival.

But the curse

the eye of the dead men.

In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying Moon, and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward; and everywhere the blue country, and their own certainly expected, and

By the light of

Moon be

holdeth God's

of the

creatures of the great calm.

their happiness.

Her beams bemocked the sultry main,
Like April hoar-frost spread;

But where the ship's huge shadow lay
The charmed water burnt alway,
A still and awful red.

Beyond the shadow of the ship

I watched the water-snakes;

They moved in tracks of shining white;
And when they reared, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watched their rich attire

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,

They coiled and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.

Their beauty and happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare;

A spring of love gushed from my heart, He blesseth them And I blessed them unaware

in his heart.

to break.

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.

The spell begins The selfsame moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free

The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea.

PART 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.

By grace of the holy Mother, the Ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.

He heareth sounds and seeth strange sights and commotions. in the sky and the element.

The bodies of the The loud wind never reached the ship,

ship's crew are

inspired, and the ship moves on;

but not by the souls of the men, nor by dæmons of earth or middle air, but by a blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent down by the

Yet now the ship moved on!

Beneath the lightning and the Moon
The dead men gave a groan.

They groaned, they stirred, they all up

rose

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 naught to me."

"I fear thee, Ancient Mariner!"
"Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!

"T was not those souls that fled in pain,

invocation of the Which to their corses came again,

guardian saint.

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.