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came

through the snow-log, and was received with

great joy

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

and hospi- It ate the food it ne'er had eat, And round and round it flew.

tality.

albatross

The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through.

And, lo! the And a good south wind sprung up
The albatross did follow,

proveth a

bird of good

omen, and And every day, for food or play,

followeth

the ship as Came to the mariner's hollo.

it returned northward

through for

and floating ice.

behind;

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moonshine.

The ancient God save thee, ancient mariner,

mariner in

hospitably From the fiends that plague thee thus!

killeth

pious bird of Why look'st thou so?"

good or en.

I shot the albatross.

With my crossbow

His ship

mates cry

PART II.

THE SUN now rose upon the right:

Out of the sea came he,

Still hid in mist, and on the left

Went down into the sea.

And the good south wind still blew behind,

But no sweet bird did follow,

Nor any day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo.

And I had done a hellish thing,

out against And it would work 'em woe;

the ancient

For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow :

Ah, wretch! said they, the bird to slay
That made the breeze to blow !

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious sun uprist;

Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist:

'T was right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'T was 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,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

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

147

mariner for killing the bird of good luck.

But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves accomplices in the crime.

The fair breeze continues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails northward even till it reaches the line. The ship bath been suddenly becalmed.

And the albatross begins to be avenged.

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.

A spirit had And some in dreams assured were

followed

them, one of Of the spirit that plagued us so;

the invisible

inhabitants Nine fathom deep he had followed us

of this plan- From the land of mist and snow.

et, neither

departed

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.

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The ancient mar

And every tongue, through utter drought,

Was withered 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.

PART III.

Each throat

THERE passed a weary time.
Was parched, and glazed each eye.
A weary time! a weary time!

How glazed each weary eye,

iner behold. When, looking westward, I beheld

eth a sign in

the element A something in the sky.

afar off.

At first it seemed a little speck,
And then it seemed a mist;

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

A speck, a mist, a shape I wist,
And still it neared and neared:
As if it dodged a water-sprite,
It plunged, and tacked, and veered.

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
We could not laugh nor wail;

Through utter drought all dumb we stood;
I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
And cried, A sail! a sail!

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
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 wellnigh done;
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!)

At its nearer approach, it see meth him to be a zhip, and at a dear ransom he freeth his speech from the bonda

of thirst.

A flash of joy.

And horror follows; for can it be a ship that

comes onward without wind or tide ?

It seemeth him but the skeleton of a ship.

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are seen as

As if through a dungeon-grate he peered
With broad and burning face.

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 its ribs Are those her ribs through which the sun
bars on the Did peer, as through a grate ?

face of the

The spectre

setting sun. And is that woman all her crew? woman and Is that a Death? and are there two? mate, and Is Death that woman's mate?

her death

no other, on

board the skeleton ship.

like crew.

Her lips were red, her looks were free,

Like vessel, Her locks were yellow as gold;
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.

Death and The naked hulk alongside came,

Life-in

Death have And the twain were casting dice;

diced for the

ship's crew; "The game is done! I've won, I 've won!"

and she (the

latter) win. Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

neth the

ancient

mariner.

The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out; within the At one stride comes the dark;

No twilight

courts of the sun.

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

At the rising We listened and looked sideways up!
of the moon, Fear at my heart, as at a cup,

My life-blood seemed to sip!

The stars were dim, and thick the night;

The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white;

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