"Ah! welladay! 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!
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 neared and neared:

As if it dodged a water sprite,
It plunged and tacked and veered.

The shipmates, in their sore dis140 tress, would

145

150

155

"With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, We could nor laugh nor wail ;

fain throw the whole guilt on the ancient Mariner: in sign whereof they hang the dead sea bird round his neck.

The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off.

At its nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship: and at a 160 dear ransom he freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst.

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,

165

A flash of joy.

And horror fol

lows. For can it be a ship that comes onward without wind or tide?

"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 aflame,
The day was well-nigh done!

Almost upon

the western wave

170

Rested the broad bright Sun;

When that strange ship drove suddenly
Betwixt us and the Sun.

175

"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.

180

"Alas! thought I, and my heart beat loud;
6 How fast she nears and nears!

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

"Are those her ribs through which the Sun 185 Did peer, as through a grate?

And is that Woman all her crew?

Is that a Death? and are there two?
Is Death that woman's mate?'

"Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:

Her skin was white as leprosy,
The nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.

190

"The naked hulk alongside came,

And the twain were casting dice:

195 Death and Life-
in-Death have
diced for the
ship's crew,
and she (the lat-
ter) winneth
the ancient
Mariner.

The game is done! I've won, I've won!'
Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

"The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out;
At one stride comes the dark;
With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea,
Off shot the spectre-bark.

"We listened, and looked sideways up!
Fear at my heart, as at a cup,

My lifeblood seemed to sip!

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205

The stars were dim, and thick the night; The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white;

From the sails the dew did drip,

Till clomb above the eastern bar

The horned Moon, with one bright star
Within the nether tip.

"One after one by the star-dogged Moon,
Too quick for groan or sigh,

Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,
And cursed me with his eye.

"Four times fifty living men
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan),
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropped down one by one.

"The souls did from their bodies fly, -
They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it passed me by,

210

215

220 But Life-inDeath begins her work on the ancient Mariner.

Like the whizz of my crossbow!"

The Wedding
Guest feareth

that a spirit is

talking to him.

66

PART IV

"I fear thee, ancient Mariner !

I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou art long and lank and brown,
As is the ribbed sea sand.

66

But the ancient "I fear thee and thy glittering eye,
And thy skinny hand so brown!"

Mariner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance.

He despiseth

the creatures of the calm,

and envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.

225

"Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding Guest! 230 This body dropt not down.

"Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide, wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.

"The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie;

And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.

"I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;

I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

"I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
But or ever a prayer had gusht,

A wicked whisper came, and made

My heart as dry as dust.

"I closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat;

235

240

245

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the

sky,

250

Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.

"The cold sweat melted from their limbs,
Nor rot nor reek did they:

The look with which they looked on me
Had never passed away.

"An orphan's curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high;

But oh more horrible than that

Is the curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.

"The moving Moon went up the sky,
And nowhere did abide :
Softly she was going up,
And a star or two beside

Her beams bemock'd the sultry main,
Like April hoarfrost spread;

But where the ship's huge shadow lay,
The charmed water burnt alway
A still and awful red.

66

Beyond the shadow of the ship,

I watched the water snakes:

They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they reared, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

"Within the shadow of the ship

I watched their rich attire;

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,

They coiled and swam; and every track

Was a flash of golden fire.

INTROD. LESS. IN ENG. LIT.

255

260

But the curse
liveth for him
in the eye of the
dead men.

In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying Moon, and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward; and everywhere the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest, and their 265 native country and their own natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords that are certainly expected, and yet 270 there is a silent joy at their arrival.