PART II THE Sun now rose upon the right: 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, For all averred, I had killed the bird Nor dim nor red, like God's own head, Then all averred, I had killed the bird 'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, The fair breeze blew, the white foam dew We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea. His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good luck. But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves ac complices in the crime. The fair breeze con tinnes; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails northward, even till it reaches the Line. The ship hath been suddenly becalmed. And the Albatross begins to be avenged. A spirit had followed them; one of the invisible 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, Day after day, day after day, Water, water, every where, 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 And some in dreams assured were Nine fathom deep he had followed us From the land of mist and snow. 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 The ship mates, in their sore distress, would fain throw the whole guilt on the an. cient Mariner: in sign whereof they hang the dead sea-bird round his neck. PART III. THERE passed a weary time. Each throat Was parched, and glazed each eye. At first it seemed a little speck, It moved and moved, and took at last A certain shape, I wist. The ancient Mariner beholdeth asign in the element afar off. At its nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship; and at a dear ransom he freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst. A flash of joy; And horror follows. For can it be a ship that comes onward without wind or tide? It seemeth him but the skeleton of a ship. A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, Through utter drought all dumb we stood! And cried, A sail! a sail! With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, Gramercy! they for joy did grin, And all at once their breath drew in, See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more! Without a breeze, without a tide, The western wave was all a-flame. When that strange shape drove suddenly And straight the Sun was flecked with bars, (Heaven's Mother send us grace!) As if through a dungeon-grate he peered Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud) Are those her sails that glance in the Sun, Are those her ribs through which the Sun Is that a Death? and are there two? Her lips were red, her looks were free, The naked hulk alongside came, The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: We listened and looked sideways up! And its ribs are seen as bars on the face of the setting Sun. The spectrewoman and her deathmate, and no other on board the skeletonship. Like vessel, like crew! Death and Life-in-death 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. |