THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.
FACILE credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles in rerum universitate. Sed horum omnium familiam quis nobis enarrabit, et gradus et cognationes et discrimina et singulorum munera ? Quid agunt? quæ loca habitant? Harum rerum notitiam semper ambivit ingenium humanum, nunquam attigit. Juvat, interea, non diffiteor, quandoque in animo, tanquam in tabulâ, majoris et melioris mundi imaginem contemplari : ne mens assuefacta hodiernæ vitæ minutiis se contrahat nimis, et tota subsidat in pusillas cogitationes. Sed veritati interea invigilandum est, modusque servandus, ut certa ab incertis, diem a nocte, distinguamus.
ARCHÆOL. Phil. p. 68.
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
“By thy long gray beard and glittering cye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
An ancient Mariner meeteth three gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one.
“ The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din.”
1
He holds him with his skinny hand,
“ There was a ship,” quoth he.
“ Hold off! unhand me, gray-beard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
The wedding He holds him with his glittering eye-
guest is spell-
bound by the
The wedding-guest stood still,
eye of the old
sea-faring
And listens like a three years' child : man, and
The Mariner hath his will.
constrained
to hear his
tale.
The wedding-guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the lighthouse top.
The Mariner
tells how the
ship sailed
southward
with a good
wind and fair
weather, till
it reached the
line.
The sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea,
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 wedding The bride hath paced into the hall, guest heareth
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.
the mariner continueth his tale.
The wedding-guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose 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 wings,
And chased us south along,
The ship
drawn by a
storm toward
the south
pole.
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 roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.
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 land of ice, and of fearful sounds where no living thing was to be seen.
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!
Till a great
At length did cross an albatross,
sea-bird,
called the Through the fog it came ;
albatross,
came through As if it had been a Christian soul,
the snow-fog, We hailed it in God's name.
and was re-
ceived with
great joy and
hospitality.
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 lo! the And a good south wind sprung up behind;
albatross
proveth a
The albatross did follow, bird of good
And every day, for food or play,
omen, and
followeth the Came to the mariner's hollo !
ship as it re-
turned north-
ward through In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
fog and float-
ing ice.
It perched for vespers nine ;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine.
The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen.
“ 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.
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 a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!
His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good luck.
Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious sun uprist :
Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.
But when the
fog cleared
off, they jus-
tify the same,
and thus
make them-
selves ac-
complices in
the crime.
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
The fair breeze continues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sajls northward, even till it reaches the Line,
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