The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;

The bright-eyed Mariner.

And thus spake on that ancient man,

ні

"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,

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,

drawn by a

storm toward the south pole.

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.

Till a great At length did cross an Albatross,

sea-bird,

called the Albatross, came

through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality.

Through 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 lo! the And a good south wind sprung up

Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and

followeth the ship as it returned northward through fog and floating

ice.

behind;

The Albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners' hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;

7 2.

killeth the

pious bird of

good omen.

thus!

Why look'st thou so?"-" With my
cross-bow

I shot the Albatross. "

PART II.

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 mariners' 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 ship

mates cry out against the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good luck.

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head, But when The glorious Sun uprist:

the fog cleared off, they justify

Then all averred, I had killed the bird the same,

That brought the fog and mist.

and thus make themselves ac

'Twas right, said they, such birds to complices in

slay,

That bring the fog and mist.

the crime.

The fair

breeze continues; the

ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and

The fair breeze blew, the white foam

flew,

The furrow followed free;

sails north- We were the first that ever burst ward, even

till it reach- Into that silent sea.

es the Line.

The ship hath been suddenly becalmed

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt

down,

'Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

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.

And the

Albatross

Water, water, everywhere,

begins to be And all the boards did shrink;

avenged.

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.

And some in dreams assured were
Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.

A Spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of

this planet, neither de

parted souls

nor angels; concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or element without

one or more.

And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;

We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

The shipmates, in their sore distress, would fain throw the whole guilt on the ancient Mariner in sign whereof they hang the dead sea-bird round his

neck.