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 choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner:

The wedding

guest heareth the bridal music; but the Mariner continueth his tale.

And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he The ship drawn by

Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,

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.

a storm toward the south pole.

*

Listen, Stranger. Storm and Wind,

A Wind and Tempest strong!

For days and weeks it play'd us freaks-
Like chaff we drove along.

Listen, Stranger! Mist and Snow,
And it grew wondrous cauld: &c.-1798.

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

The land of ice and of fearful sounds, where no living thing was to be seen.

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 crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd and howl'd,

Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross an Albatross
Thorough 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 cat,†

And round and round it flew.

The ice did split with a thunder-fit ;
The helmsman steer'd us through!

*And an it were a Christian soul.—1798.

The Mariners gave it biscuit-worms.-Ib.