صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

XIII

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

PART I

The most original poet and influential thinker of his day was SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGEborn in Devonshire, England, 1772; died, 1834. The magnetism of his personality helped to develop the gifts of Southey, Wordsworth, and Lamb. The fine art of his best poetry is unsurpassed by any English verse yet written. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," the only poem of length that he completed, is the highest of all poetry of its kind. "Christabel " and "Kubla Khan," both incomplete, are splendid specimens of brilliant imagery and exquisite versification. His "Ode to Mt. Blanc,"

is one of the most sublime poems in any language. Coleridge was the first critic of his day. By his lectures on Shakespeare he did more than any other man of his generation to spread a true knowledge of the great dramatist.

[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

The Wedding-Guest is spellbound by the eye of the old sea-faring man, and constrained to hear his tale.

The Bridegroom's doors are open'd

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, grey-beard
loon!"

Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

He holds him with his glittering

eye

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 harbor cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top.

eftsoons: immediately.

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.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The Wedding-Guest The bride hath paced into the hall,

heareth the bridal

music; but the Mari

Red as a rose is she;

ner continueth his Nodding their heads before her goes The merry minstrelsy.

tale.

The ship driven by

a storm toward the

south pole.

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.

bassoon: musical instrument, used at the wedding.

The land of ice, and of fearful sounds, where no living thing was to be

seen.

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 roar'd 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 ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:

It crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd
and howl'd,

Like noises in a swound!

clifts: clefts.

[blocks in formation]

At length did cross an Albatross:
Thorough the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hail'd 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 thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprang up
behind;

And 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;
While all the night, through fog-
smoke white,

Glimmer'd the white Moonshine."

"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."

thorough: through.

shroud: rope.

vespers: evenings,

« السابقةمتابعة »