I heard, and in my soul discerned Two voices in the air. "Is it he?" quoth one, "Is this the man? By Him who died on cross, With his cruel bow he laid full low The harmless Albatross. "The spirit who bideth by himself In the land of mist and snow, He loved the bird that loved the man Who shot him with his bow." The other was a softer voice, As soft as honey-dew: Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, PART VI. FIRST VOICE. BUT tell me, tell me! speak again, Thy soft. response renewing What makes that ship drive on so fast? What is the ocean doing? SECOND VOICE. Still as a slave before his lord, The ocean hath no blast; 405 410 415 Her lips were red, her looks were free, 190 Her skin was as white as leprosy, The Night-mare Life-in-Death was she, The naked hulk alongside came, And the twain were casting dice; "The game is done! I've won! I've won!" Quoth she, and whistles thrice. The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out; At the rising We listened and looked sideways up! of the moon. One after another, Fear at my heart, as at a cup, My life-blood seemed to sip! The stars were dim, and thick the night, 195 200 205 The steerman's face by his lamp gleamed white; From the sails the dew did drip Till clomb above the eastern bar The horned moon, with one bright star 210 Within the nether tip. One after one, by the star-dogged moon, "I FEAR thee, ancient Mariner ! I fear thy skinny hand! And thou are long, and lank, and brown, As is the ribbed sea-sand.1 I fear thee and thy glittering eye, And thy skinny hand, so brown.”. The wedding guest 225 feareth that a spirit is talking to him. 230 1 For the last two lines of this stanza, I am indebted to Mr. Wordsworth. It was on a delightful walk from Nether Stowey to Dulverton, with him and his sister, in the autumn of 1797, that this poem was planned, and in part composed." But the ancient Mari ner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance. Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! And never a saint took rity on He despiseth The many men, so beautiful! the creatures of the calm. And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead. But the curse liveth for him in And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things I looked upon the rotting sea, And drew my eyes away; I looked upon the rotting deck, I looked to heaven, and tried to pray ; But or ever a prayer had gusht, A wicked whisper came, and made My heart as dry as dust. I closed my lids, and kept them close, 235 240 245 For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky Lay like a load on my weary eye, And the dead were at my feet. The cold sweat melted from their limbs, 250 The look with which they looked on me An orphan's curse would drag to hell A spirit from on high; But oh more horrible than that Is the curse in a dead man's eye! Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, The moving moon went up the sky, And no where did abide : 255 the eye of the dead men. Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside wards the journeying moon, and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward; and every where the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest, and their native country and their own natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords that are certainly expected and yet there is a silent joy at their arrival. Her beams bemocked the sultry main, Like April hoar-frost spread; But where the ship's huge shadow lay, The charmed water burned alway A still and awful red. Beyond the shadow of the ship, I watched the water-snakes: They moved in tracks of shining white, 270 By the light of the moon he beholdeth God's creatures of the great calm. 275 |