Death and Life-inDeath have diced for the ship's crew and she (the latter) winneth the ancient Mariner.

No twilight within

the courts of the Sun.

At the rising of the
Moon.

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 one stride comes the dark;

With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea,
Off shot the spectre-bark.

We listen'd and look'd sideways up!
Fear at my heart, as at a cup,

My life-blood seemed to sip!

The stars were dim, and thick the night,

The steersman'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

Within the nether tip.

One after another, One after one, by the star-dogged

Moon

Too quick for groan or sigh,

clomb; old form of climbed.

His shipmates drop down dead;

But Life-in-Death

begins her work on the ancient Mariner.

Each turn'd his face with a ghastly

pang,

And cursed me with his eye.

Four times fifty living men,
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan)
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropp'd down one by one.

The souls did from their bodies fly,-
They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it passed me by,
Like the whizz of my cross-bow!"

The Wedding-
Guest feareth that

a spirit is talking
to him.

66

XIV

PART IV

"I fear thee, ancient Mariner!

I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou art long, and lank, and brown,

As is the ribb'd sea-sand.

But the ancient I fear thee and thy glittering eye,

Mariner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth

to relate his horri

ble penance.

And thy skinny hand, so brown.”

"Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding: Guest!

This body dropt not down.

He despiseth the creatures of the calm.

And envieth that they should live, and SO many lie

dead.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.

The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy

things

Lived on; and so did I.

I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

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,
And the balls like pulses beat;

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.

But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead

men.

In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying Moon and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward; and everywhere 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.

By the light of the
Moon he beholdeth
God's creatures of
the great calm.

The cold sweat melted from their

limbs,

Nor rot nor reek did they:

The look with which they looked on

me

Had never pass'd away.

An orphan's curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high;

But oh! more horrible than that
Is a curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that

curse,

And yet I could not die.

The moving moon went up the sky,
And nowhere did abide:
Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside

Her beams bemock'd the sultry main,
Like April hoar-frost spread;

But where the ship's huge shadow
lay,

The charmed water burnt alway
A still and awful red.

Beyond the shadow of the ship,
I watch'd the water-snakes:

They moved in tracks of shining
white,

And when they rear'd, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

Their beauty and their happiness.

He blesseth them in his heart.

The spell begins to break.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watch'd their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coil'd and swam; and every

track

Was a flash of golden fire.

O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gush'd from my
heart,

And I bless'd them unaware:

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I bless'd them unaware.

The selfsame moment I could pray;
And from my neck to free

The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea."

By grace of the holy Mother the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.

PART V

"O Sleep! it is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!

To Mary Queen the praise be given!
She sent the gentle sleep from
Heaven,

That slid into my soul.

The silly buckets on the deck,
That had so long remain'd,

I dreamt that they were fill'd with

dew;

And when I woke, it rain❜d.