Whose waves oft leaping on their craggy course E [Vide ante, p. 186.] THE RIME OF THE ANCYENT MARINERE', IN SEVEN PARTS. ARGUMENT How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by Storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the Tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country. I. IT is an ancyent Marinere, And he stoppeth one of three: "By thy long grey beard and thy glittering eye "The Bridegroom's doors are open'd wide, "And I am next of kin; "The Guests are met, the Feast is set,- But still he holds the wedding-guest- 10 1 First published in Lyrical Ballads, 1798, pp. [1]-27; republished in Lyrical Ballads, 1800, vol. i; Lyrical Ballads, 1802, vol. i; Lyrical Ballads, 1805, vol. i; reprinted in The Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Appendix. pp. 404-29, London: E. Moxon, Son, and Company, [1870]; reprinted in Lyrical Ballads edition of 1798, edited by Edward Dowden, LL.D., 1890, in P. W., 1893, Appendix E, pp. 512-20, and in Lyrical Ballads, edited by Thomas Hutchinson, 1898. The text of the present issue has been collated with that of an early copy of Lyrical Ballads, 1798 (containing Lewti, pp. 63-7), presented by Coleridge to his sister-in-law, Miss Martha Fricker. The lines were not numbered in L. B., 1798. 179 35 He holds him with his skinny hand, Quoth he, there was a Ship "Now get thee hence, thou grey-beard Loon! He holds him with his glittering eye- The wedding-guest sate on a stone, And thus spake on that ancyent man, The Ship was cheer'd, the Harbour clear'd- Below the Kirk, below the Hill, Below the Light-house top. The Sun came up upon the left, And he shone bright, and on the right Higher and higher every day, Till over the mast at noon The wedding-guest here beat his breast, The Bride hath pac'd into the Hall, Nodding their heads before her goes The wedding-guest he beat his breast. Yet he cannot chuse but hear: Listen, Stranger! Storm and Wind, A Wind and Tempest strong! For days and weeks it play'd us freaks- Listen, Stranger! Mist and Snow, And Ice mast-high came floating by And thro' the drifts the snowy clifts Ne shapes of men ne beasts we ken- The Ice was here, the Ice was there, The Ice was all around: It crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd and howl'd- 60 At length did cross an Albatross, 65 And an it were a Christian Soul, The Marineres gave it biscuit-worms, And a good south wind sprung up behind, And every day for food or play In mist or cloud on mast or shroud, Whiles all the night thro' fog smoke-white, "God save thee, ancyent Marinere! "From the fiends that plague thee thus"Why look'st thou so?"-with my cross bow I shot the Albatross. 75 2 II. The Sun came up upon the right, And broad as a weft upon the left And the good south wind still blew behind, 63 And an] As if MS. corr. by S. T. C. fog-smoke white. 83 weft [S. T. C.] 75 Corrected in the Errata! And I had done an hellish thing Ne dim ne red, like God's own head, Then all averr'd, I had kill'd the Bird 'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay The breezes blew, the white foam flew, We were the first that ever burst Down dropt the breeze, the Sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be And we did speak only to break 95 100 105 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, As idle as a painted Ship Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Ne any drop to drink. The very deeps did rot: O Christ! Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs About, about, in reel and rout, The Death-fires danc'd at night; The water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green and blue and white. With throat unslack'd, with black lips bak'd 150 Then while thro' drouth all dumb they stood I bit my arm and suck'd the blood With throat unslack'd, with black lips bak'd And all at once their breath drew in She doth not tack from side to side- Withouten wind, withouten tide She steddies with upright keel. 155 |