POEMS

WRITTEN IN EARLY MANHOOD, AND MIDDLE LIFE.

VOL. I.

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.-T. BURNET. ARCHEOL. PHIL. p. 68.

THE

RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.*

IN SEVEN PARTS.

PART I.

Ir is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

An ancient Mariner meeteth three gal

"By thy long gray beard and glittering lants bidden

eye,

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

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."

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.

to a wedding-feast, and detain eth one.

* See Note.

The Wed- He holds him with his glittering eye

ding-Guest is spellbound by

the eye of

the old sea

faring man,

and constrained to hear his

tale.

The Ma

riner tells low the

ship sailed

The Wedding-Guest stood still,

And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.

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 light-house top.

The sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he;`

southward And he shone bright, and on the right

with a good

wind and

fair weath

er, till it

reached the Line.

The Wed- The bride hath paced into the hall,

ding-Guest

heareth the Red as a rose is she;

bridal mu

sie; but the Nodding their heads before her goes

Mariner

continueth The merry minstrelsy.

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 The ship
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 roared the blast,

drawn by a

storm to-
ward the
south pole.

режает?

له

And southward aye we fled.

And now there came both mist and snow,

And it grew wondrous cold:

As green as emerald.

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,

And through the drifts the snowy clifts The land of

Did send a dismal sheen :

ice, and of
fearful

sounds

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken- where no

The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around:

[howled,

It cracked and growled, and roared and
Like noises in a swound!

living thing

was to be
seen.