The Household Book of Poetry

By the

light of

RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

Her beams bemocked the sultry | My lips were wet, my throat was

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

the moon I watched the water-snakes;

creatures

of the

great calm.

Their

beauty

white;

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.

573

And when they reared, the elfish And soon I heard a roaring wind- He hear

light

Fell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watched their rich attire

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, | And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
They coiled and swam; and every

track

Was a flash of golden fire.

O happy living things! no tongue

and their Their beauty might declare; happiness.

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,

A spring of love gushed from my And the sails did sigh like sedge;

And the rain poured down from one
black cloud-

Sure my kind saint took pity on me, The moon was at its edge.
And I blessed them unaware.

and the element.

The loud wind never reached the The bod-
ship,

Yet now the ship moved on!
Beneath the lightning and the moon
The dead men gave a groan.

They groaned, they stirred, they all

uprose

I dreamt that they were filled with Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;

dew;

with rain. And when I awoke, it rained.

It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise.

ies of the ship's

crew arе

inspired, and the ship

moves on;

But not by the

souls of the men,

The helmsman steered, the ship Till noon we quietly sailed on,

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 pulled at one rope,
But he said nought to me."

"I fear thee, Ancient Mariner!"

"Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!

nor by de- 'T was not those souls that fled in

mons of

earth or

pain,

middle air, Which to their corses came again,
but by a
blessed
troop of

But a troop of spirits blest;

angelic For when it dawned they dropped

spirits,

sent down

by the in

Vocation of the guardian saint.

their arms,

And clustered round the mast; Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,

And from their bodies passed.

Around, around flew each sweet sound,

Then darted to the sun;
Slowly the sounds came back again—
Now mixed, now one by one.

The polar spirit's fellow demons, the invisible inhabi

tants of the element, take part in Lis wrong:

Sometimes, a-dropping from the sky, 'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the and two of

them relate, one to the other, that

long and

heavy for

the Án

By him who died on cross,
With his cruel bow he laid full low penance,
The harmless Albatross!

In the land of mist and snow,
The spirit who bidetli by himself
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.'

cient Mariner, bath been ac corded to

the polar spirit, who

returneth southward.

It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek, Like a meadow-gale of Spring

The Mari- "But why drives on that ship so fast, It mingled strangely with my fears,

ner hath

been cast Without or wave or wind?'

motion is As in a gentle weather;

retarded;

Yet it felt like a welcoming.

Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship,
Yet she sailed 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 harbor-bar,

the Mar- 'Twas night, calm night-the moon And I with sobs did pray

O let me be awake, my God! Or let me sleep alway.

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

The pang, the curse, with which they The rock shone bright, the kirk no

died,

Had never passed away;

less

That stands above the rock;

I could not draw my eyes from theirs, The moonlight steeped in silentness
Nor turn them up to pray.

The steady weathercock,

is finally

expiated.

And the Ancient Mariner beholdeth his native country.

And the bay was white with silent | He kneels at morn, and noon, and

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eve-

He hath a cushion plump;

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

The skiff-boat neared-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 Approach

said

'And they answered not our cheer! The planks looked warped! and see those sails,

How thin they are and sere!
I never saw aught like to them,
Unless perchance it were

Brown 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 a-feared'--'Push on, push on!' Said the hermit cheerily.

The boat came closer to the ship,
But I nor spake nor stirred;
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 reached the ship, it split the bay-
The ship went down like lead.

eth the ship with wonder.

The ship suddenly sinketh

RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

door!

Upon the whirl where sank the ship | What loud uproar bursts from that
The boat span round and round;
And all was still, save that the hill
Was telling of the sound.

I moved my lips-the pilot shrieked
And fell down in a fit;

The holy hermit raised his eyes,
And prayed where he did sit.

I took the oars; the pilot's boy,
Who now doth crazy go,
Laughed loud and long; and all the
while

His eyes went to and fro:

The wedding-guests are there;
But in the garden-bower the bride
And bride-maids singing are;
And hark the little vesper bell,
Which biddeth me to prayer!

O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath
been

Alone on a wide, wide sea-
So lonely 't was, that God himself
Scarce seemed there to be.

O sweeter than the marriage-feast,

'Ha! ha!' quoth he, 'full plain IT is sweeter far to me,

man!'

The hermit crossed his brow:

To walk together to the kirk
With a goodly company!—

To walk together to the kirk,
And all together pray,

While each to his great Father
bends-

Old men, and babes, and loving
friends,

And youths and maidens gay!

Farewell! farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!

'Say quick,' quoth he, 'I bid thee He prayeth well who loveth well

say

What manner of man art thou?'

Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best who loveth best

Forthwith this frame of mine was All things both great and small;

577

And to teach by his own example, love, and

reverence to all things, that God made and loveth.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

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