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

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

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.

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.

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Their beauty and their happiness.

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.

O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gush'd from my heart,

He blesseth them And I bless'd them unaware:

in his heart.

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.

The spell begins The selfsame moment I could pray ;
And from my neck so free

to break.

The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea.

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By grace of the

holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is

refreshed with rain.

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 remained,

I dreamt that they were filled with dew;
And when I awoke, it rained.

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.

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The bodies of the

ship's crew are inspired, and the ship moves on;

The wan stars danced between.

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

And the rain poured 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 reached the 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,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;

It had been strange, even in a dream,

To have seen those dead men rise.

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but not by the

souls of the men,

nor by demons of

earth or middle

air, but by a blessed

troop of angelic

spirits, sent down

by the invocation of the guardian saint.

The helmsman steered; the ship moved on; 335

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.

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For when it dawned-they dropped their

arms,

And cluster'd round the mast;

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Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,
And from their bodies passed.

How they seemed to fill the sea and air
With their sweet jargoning!

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.

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