It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek, Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, O dream of joy! is this indeed Is this the hill? Is this the kirk? We drifted o'er the Harbour-bar, The harbour-bay was clear as glass, And the shadow of the moon. The rock shone bright, the kirk no less The moonlight steeped in silentness And the bay was white with silent light, Till rising from the same Full many shapes, that shadows were, In crimson colours came. A little distance from the prow Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat; A man all light, a seraph-man, This seraph-band, each waved his hand; It was a heavenly sight: They stood as signals to the land, This seraph-band, each waved his hand, But soon I heard the dash of oars, The pilot, and the pilot's boy, I saw a third-I heard his voice; He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away The albatross's blood." PART VII. "This hermit good lives in that wood That come from a far countrée. He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve- It is the moss that wholly hides The skiff-boat ner'd; I heard them talk, Why, this is strange, I trow ! Where are those lights so many and fair Strange, by my faith!' the hermit saidAnd they answered not our cheer. The planks look warped, and see those sails How thin they are and sere! I never saw aught like to them Unless perchance it were The skeletons of leaves that lag My forest brook along : When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow, And the owlet whoops to the wolf below 'Dear Lord! it has a fiendish look (The pilot made reply) I am a-feared.'-' Push on, push on!' The boat came closer to the ship, Under the water it rumbled on, Stunned by that loud and dreadful sound, Which sky and ocean smote, Like one that hath been seven days drowned My body lay afloat: But, swift as dreams, myself I found Within the pilot's boat. Upon the whirl, where sank the ship, I moved my lips: the pilot shrieked, The holy hermit raised his eyes I took the oars; the pilot's boy, Laughed loud and long, and all the while 'Ha! ha!' quoth he- full plain I see, And now all in my own countrée The Hermit stepped forth from the boat, O shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man!' Say quick,' quoth he, I bid thee say Forthwith this frame of mind was wrenched With a woeful agony, Which forced me to begin my tale, And then it left me free. Since then, at an uncertain hour That agony returns; And till my ghastly tale is told This heart within me burns. I pass, like night, from land to land; I know the man that must hear me; What loud uproar bursts from that door! The wedding-guests are there; But in the garden-bower the bride |