COLERIDGE'S POETICAL WORKS.

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. T. BURNET: ARCHEOL. PHIL. p. 68.

PART THE FIRST.

IT is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

An ancient Mariner meeteth three Gal

By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, lants bidden to

"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 :
66 May'st hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand,
"There was a ship," quoth he.

"Hold off! unhand me, grey-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.

a weddingfeast, and detaineth one.

The WeddingGuest is spellbound by the eye of the old sea-faring

B

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.

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot chuse 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 light-house 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 the Mariner continueth

his tale.

The ship drawn by a

storm toward

Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot chuse 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:

the south pole. He struck with his o'ertaking wings,

The land of

ice, and of

fearful sounds,
where no living
thing was to
be seen.

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.