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.

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around:

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled A wild and ceaseless sound.

At length did cross an albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;

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

The Mariners gave it biscuit-worms,
And round and round it flew :
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through.

And a good south wind sprung up behind,
The albatross did follow;

And every day for food or play

Came to the Mariner's hollo!

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

Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white
Glimmer'd the white moon-shine."

'God save thee, ancient Mariner!

From the fiends that plague thee thus !— Why look'st thou so ?"-" With my cross bow I shot the albatross."

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 an hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.

Nor dim nor red, like an angel's head,
The glorious sun uprist;

Then all averred, I had kill'd the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay
That bring the fog and mist.

The breezes blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free:

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea

Down drop'd the breeze, the sails drop'd down.

'Twas 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, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

The very deeps 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.

And some in dreams assured were
Of the spirit that plagued us so :
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.

And every tongue through utter drouth

Was wither'd 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.

"So pass'd a weary time; each throat
Was parched, and glazed each eye,
When, looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky.

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 ner'd and ner'd;
And as if it dodged a water-sprite,
It plunged and tacked and veered.

With throat unslaked, with black lips baked We could nor laugh nor wail,

Through utter drouth all dumb we stood

Till I bit my arm and sucked the blood,

་

And cried, a sail! a sail !'

12

With throat 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 steddies with upright keel!'

The western wave was all a flame,
The day was well nigh 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 !)
As if through a dungeon grate he peered
With broad and burning face.

Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud) How fast she neres and neres !

Are those her sails that glance in the sun Like restless gossameres?

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

And are those two all, all her crew,
That woman, and her mate?

His bones were black with many a crack, All black and bare, I ween;