PART V. On sleep! it is a gentle thing, To Mary Queen the praise be given! The silly buckets on the deck, I dreamt that they were filled with dew; My lips were wet, my throat was cold, Sure I had drunken in my dreams, I moved, and could not feel my limbs: I thought that I had died in sleep, And soon I heard a roaring wind: But with its sound it shook the sails, By grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain. He heareth sounds and seeth strange sights and commotions in the sky and the ele ment. The bodies To and fro they were hurried about! And the coming wind did roar more loud, And the rain poured down from one black cloud; 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, The loud wind never reached the ship, of the ship's Yet now the ship moved on! crew are the ship inspired, and Beneath the lightning and the Moon The dead men gave a groan. moves on; They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, It had been strange, even in a dream, To have seen those dead men rise. The helmsman steered, the ship moved on; 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. The body of my brother's son Stood by me, knee to knee: The body and I pulled at one rope, "I fear thee, ancient Mariner!" For when it dawned-they dropped their arms, Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths, Around, around, flew each sweet sound, Then darted to the Sun; Slowly the sounds came back again, Now mixed, now one by one. Sometimes a-dropping from the sky And now 'twas like all instruments, Now like a lonely flute; And now it is an angel's song, That makes the heavens be mute. It ceased; yet still the sails made on A noise like of a hidden brook But not by the souls of the men, noi 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 lonesome Spirit from the south-pole carries on the ship as far as the Line, in obedience to the angelic troop, but still requireth vengeance. The Polar Spirit's fellow demons, the invisible inhabitants of the element, take part in his wrong; and two of them In the leafy month of June, Till noon we quietly sailed on, Under the keel nine fathom deep, The sails at noon left off their tune, The Sun, right up above the mast, But in a minute she 'gan stir, With a short uneasy motion Backwards and forwards half her length With a short uneasy motion. Then like a pawing horse let go, How long in that same fit I lay, But ere my living life returned, 'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the man ? relate, one to By him who died on cross, With his cruel bow he laid full low The harmless Albatross. The spirit who bideth by himself He loved the bird that loved the man The other was a softer voice, Quoth he, 'The man hath penance done, the other, that penance long and hea vy for the ancient Mariner hath been accorded to the Polar Spirit, who returneth southward. PART VI. FIRST VOICE. 'BUT tell me, tell me! speak again, Thy soft response renewing What makes that ship drive on so fast? SECOND VOICE. 'Still as a slave before his lord, The ocean hath no blast; His great bright eye most silently Up to the Moon is cast |