Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon".

The wedding-guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The wedding-guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot chuse but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed mariner.

"And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:
He struck with his o'ertaking winds,
And chased us south along.

"With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,

And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roar'd the blast,
And southward aye we fled.

"And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wonderous cold:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

"And through the drifts the snowy clift Did send a dismal sheen:

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we kenThe ice was all between.

"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, Like noises in a swound!

"At length did cross an Albatross ;

Through the fog it came;

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

"It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;

The helmsman steer'd 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 perch'd for vespers nine;

Whilst all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmer'd the white moonshine."

"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 averr'd I had kill'd 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:

They all averr'd 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 fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow stream'd off 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, every where,

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

"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.

"And some in dreams assured were

Of the spirit that plagued us so: Nine fathom deep he had follow'd us From the land of mist and snow.

"And every tongue, through utter drought, Was wither'd at the root;

We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choak'd 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.

"THERE pass'd a weary time. Each throat
Was parch'd, 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 seem'd a little speck,
And then it seem'd 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 near'd and near'd:
And as if it dodged a water-sprite,
It plunged and tack'd and veer'd.

"With throat unslack'd, with black lips baked,
We could not laugh nor wail;
Through utter drought all dumb we stood!
I bit my arm, I suck'd the blood,

And cried, A sail! a sail!

"With throat unslack'd, 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 fleck'd with bars, (Heaven's mother send us grace !)

As if through a dungeon grate he peer'd,
With broad and burning face.

"Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud) How fasts she nears and nears!

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

«The naked hulk alongside came,

And the twain were casting dice;

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

"A gust of wind sterte up behind

And whistled through his bones;

Through the holes of his eyes and the hole of his mouth,

Half-whistles and half-groans.

"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 listen'd and look'd sideways up!

Fear at my heart, as at a cup,

My life-blood seem'd to sip!

The stars were dim, and thick the night,
The steersman's face by his lamp gleam'd white;
From the sails the dews did drip-

Till clombe above the eastern bar
The horned moon, with one bright star
Within the nether tip.

"One after one, by the star-dogg'd moon,
Too quick for groan or sigh;

Each turn'd 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 dropp'd down one by one.

"The souls did from their bodies fly,

They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it pass'd me by,

Like the whiz of my cross-bow!"

PART IV.

"I FEAR thee, ancient mariner!

I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou art long, and lank, and brown,

As is the ribb'd sea-sand.

"I fear thee and thy glittering eye, And thy skinny hand, so brown." "Fear not, fear not, thou wedding guest! 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 look'd upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;

I look'd upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

"I look'd 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;

[sky

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the
Lay, like a cloud, 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 look'd on me
Had never pass'd 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 hoar-frost spread;

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

I watch'd the water snakes:

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

"Within the shadow of the ship

I watch'd their rich attire; Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, They coil'd and swam; and every track Was a flash of golden fire.

"O happy living things! no tongue

Their beauty might declare;

A spring of love gusht from my heart,
And I bless'd them unaware!
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I bless'd them unaware.

"The self-same moment I could pray; And from my neck so free

The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea."

PART V.

"O SLEEP! it is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!

To Mary Queen the praise be given !
She sent the gentle sleep from heaven,
That slid into my soul.

"The silly buckets on the deck,

That had so long remain'd,

I dreamt that they were fill'd with dews; And when I awoke, it rain'd.

"My lips were wet, my throat was cold, My garments all were dank;

Sure I had drunken in my dreams,
And still my body drank.

"I moved, and could not feel my limbs : I was so light-almost

I thought that I had died in sleep,
And was a blessed ghost.

"And soon I heard a roaring wind:

It did not come anear;

But with its sound it shook the sails,
That were so thin and sere.

"The upper air burst into life!

And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
To and fro they were hurried about;
And to and fro, and in and out,

The wan stars danced between.

"And the coming wind did roar more loud, And the sails did sigh like sedge;

And the rain pour'd down from one black cloud; The moon was at its edge.

"The thick black cloud was cleft, and still

The moon was at its side;

Like waters shot from some high crag,
The lightning fell with never a jag,

A river steep and wide.

"The loud wind never reach'd the ship
Yet now the ship moved on!
Beneath the lightning and the moon
The dead men gave a groan.

They groan'd, they stirr'd, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;

It had been strange, even in a dream,

To have seen those dead men rise.

"The helmsman steer'd, the ship moved on:
Yet never a breeze up blew;
The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,
Where they were wont to do:

They raised their limbs like lifeless tools-
We were a ghastly crew.

"The body of my brother's son

Stood by me, knee to knee:
The body and I pull'd at one rope,
But he said nought to me."

"I fear thee, ancient mariner!"

"Be calm thou, wedding-guest!

"T was not those souls that fled in pain, Which to their corses came again,

But a troop of spirits blest:

"For when it dawn'd-they dropp'd their arms, And cluster'd round the mast;

Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,
And from their bodies pass'd.

"Around, around, flew each sweet sound,
Then darted to the sun;
Slowly the sounds came back again,
Now mix'd, now one by one.

"Sometimes a-dropping from the sky
I heard the sky-lark sing;
Sometimes all little birds that are,
How they seem'd to fill the sea and air
With their sweet jargoning!

"And now 'twas like all instruments,
Now like a lonely flute;
And now it is an angel's song,

That makes the heavens be mute.

"It ceased; yet still the sails made on A pleasant noise till noon,

A noise like of a hidden brook

In the leafy month of June,
That to the sleeping woods all night
Singeth a quiet tune.

"Till noon we quietly sail'd on,

Yet never a breeze did breathe: Slowly and smoothly went the ship, Moved onward from beneath.

"Under the keel nine fathom deep,

From the land of mist and snow,
The spirit slid: and it was he

That made the ship to go.
The sails at noon left off their tune,

And the ship stood still also.

"The sun, right up above the mast,
Had fixt her to the ocean;
But in a minute she 'gan stir,

With a short uneasy motion-
Backwards and forwards half her length,
With a short uneasy motion.

"Then like a pawing horse let go,
She made a sudden bound:

It flung the blood into my head,
And I fell down in a swound.

"How long in that same fit I lay,
I have not to declare;
But ere my living life return'd,
I heard and in my soul discern'd
Two voices in the air.

"Is it he?' quoth one, Is this the man? By him who died on cross,

With his cruel bow he laid full low

The harmless Albatross.

"The spirit who bideth by himself
In the land of mist and snow,
He loved the bird that loved the man
Who shot him with his bow.'

"The other was a softer voice,

As soft as honey dew:

Quoth he, The man hath penance done, And penance more will do.'

PART VI.

FIRST VOICE.

"BUT tell me, tell me! speak again, Thy soft response renewing

What makes that ship drive on so fast? What is the ocean doing?'

SECOND VOICE.

"Still as a slave before his lord,
The ocean hath no blast;
His great bright eye most silently
Up to the moon is cast-

"If he may know which way to go;
For she guides him smooth or grim,
See, brother, see! how graciously
She looketh down on him.'

FIRST VOICE.

"But why drives on that ship so fast, Without or wave or wind?'

SECOND VOICE.

"The air is cut away before,

666

And closes from behind.

Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high!
Or we shall be belated:

For slow and slow that ship will go,
When the mariner's trance is abated.'

"I woke, and we were sailing on

As in a gentle weather:

"Twas night, calm night, the moon was high; The dead men stood together.

"All stood together on the deck,

For a charnel-dungeon fitter: All fix'd on me their stony eyes, That in the moon did glitter.

And look'd far forth, yet little saw
Of what had else been seen-

"Like one, that on a lonesome road

Doth walk in fear and dread,

And having once turn'd round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend

Doth close behind him tread.

"But soon there breathed a wind on me,
Nor sound nor motion made:
Its path was not upon the sea,
In ripple or in shade.

"It raised my hair, it fann'd my cheek,
Like a meadow-gale of spring-
It mingled strangely with my fears,
Yet it felt like a welcoming.

"Swiftly, swiftly, flew the ship,
Yet she sail'd softly too:
Sweetly, sweetly, blew the breeze-
On me alone it blew.

"Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed The light-house top I see?

Is this the hill? is this the kirk?
Is this mine own countree?

"We drifted o'er the harbour bar,

And I with sobs did prayO let me be awake, my God!

Or let me sleep alway.

"The harbour bay was clear as glass,
So smoothly it was strewn!
And on the bay the moonlight lay,
And the shadow of the moon.

"The rock shone bright, the kirk no less, That stands above the rock:

The moonlight steep'd in silentness
The steady weathercock.

"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
Those crimson shadows were:
I turn'd my eyes upon the deck-

Oh, Christ! what saw I there!

"Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,
And, by the holy rood!

A man all light, a seraph-man,
On every corse there stood.

"This seraph-band, each waved his hand:
It was a heavenly sight!
They stood as signals to the land,
Each one a lovely light:

"This seraph-band, each waved his hand,
No voice did they impart-
No voice; but oh! the silence sank
Like music on my heart.

"But soon I heard the dash of oars,

I heard the pilot's cheer; My head was turn'd perforce away, And I saw a boat appear.

"The pilot, and the pilot's boy,

I heard them coming fast:
Dear Lord in heaven! it was a joy
The dead men could not blast.

"I saw a third-I heard his voice:
It is the hermit good!

He singeth loud his godly hymns
That he makes in the wood.
He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away
The Albatross's blood."

PART VII.

"THIS hermit good lives in that wood
Which slopes down to the sea.
How loudly his sweet voice he rears!
He loves to talk with marineres

That come from a far countree.

"He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve-
He hath a cushion plump:

It is the moss that wholly hides
The rotted old oak stump.

"The skiff-boat near'd: I heard them talk, Why this is strange, I trow!

Where are those lights so many and fair,
That signal made but now?'

"Strange, by my faith!' the hermit said-
And they answer'd not our cheer!
The planks look warp'd! and see those sails,
How thin they are and sere!

I never saw ought 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,
That eats the she-wolf's young.'

"Dear Lord! it hath a fiendish look'—
(The pilot made reply)—

I am afeared'-Push on, push on!"
Said the hermit cheerily.

"The boat came closer to the ship,
But I nor spake nor stirr'd;
The boat came close beneath the ship,
And straight a sound was heard.

"Under the water it rumbled on,
Still louder and more dread:
It reach'd the ship, it split the bay;
The ship went down like lead.

"Stunn'd by that loud and dreadful sound, Which sky and ocean smote,

Like one that hath been seven days drown'd, My body lay afloat;

But swift as dreams, myself I found

Within the pilot's boat.