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And he has leaped into the waves, and crossed the shining

stream,

And he has clambered up the bank, all in the moonlight gleam; Oh, there are kisses sweet as dew, and words as soft as rain But they have heard her father's steps, and in he leaps again!

Out spoke the ancient fisherman: "Oh, what was that, my daughter?"

""Twas nothing but a pebble, sir, I threw into the water." "And what is that, pray tell me, love, that paddles off so fast?"

"It's nothing but a porpoise, sir, that's been a-swimming past."

Out spoke the ancient fisherman: "Now bring me my harpoon!

I'll get into my fishing boat, and fix the fellow soon."

Down fell the pretty innocent, as falls a snow-white lamb; Her hair drooped round her pallid cheeks, like seaweed on a clam.

Alas for those two loving ones! she waked not from her swound,

And he was taken with the cramp, and in the waves was drowned;

But Fate has metamorphosed1 them, in pity of their woe, And now they keep an oyster shop for mermaids down below.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READINGS

The Deacon's Masterpiece. Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The Diverting History of John Gilpin. William Cowper.
The Walrus and the Carpenter. Lewis Carroll.

The Courtin'. James Russell Lowell.

For the teacher to read to the class:

The Chambered Nautilus and The Boys, by Holmes.

1 Changed.

THREE SEA PICTURES AND A MORAL

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was born in Devonshire, England. He was a daydreamer from early childhood. For many years Coleridge lived in the Lake Country and he is known as one of the Lake Poets. The Ancient Mariner, from which these selections are taken, was composed while the poet was on a walking tour with his friends, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy. It is his poetical masterpiece. See also:

Halleck's New English Literature, pp. 398–406.

Herford's The Age of Wordsworth (Coleridge).

Traill's Coleridge.

Caine's Life of Coleridge.

I

The Antarctic Ocean and the Albatross

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,
Like voices in a swound!

At length did cross an Albatross,1
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed 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 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;

While all the night, through fog-smoke white,

Glimmered the white moonshine.

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II

Daytime on the Tropical Ocean

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, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere

Nor any drop to drink.

III

Nighttime on the Tropical Ocean

The moving moon went up the sky,

And nowhere did abide :

Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside

Her beams bemocked 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.

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 gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware:

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

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

The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea.

IV.

The Moral

O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide wide sea:

So lonely, 'twas, that God himself
Scarce seemèd there to be.

O sweeter than the marriage feast,
"Tis sweeter far to me,

To walk together to the kirk,1
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!

1 Church.

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