How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the old Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancient Mariner came back to his own Country. Part I. It is an ancient Mariner, X And he stoppeth one of three. 'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, 4 Now wherefore stopp'st thou me? The Bridegroom's doors are open'd wide, And I am next of kin; The guests are met, the feast is set: 8 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!' 12 Eftsoons his hand dropt he. He holds him with his glittering eyeThe Wedding-Guest stood still, And listens like a three years' child: 16 The Mariner hath his will. The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: He cannot choose but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, 20 The bright-eyed Mariner. "The ship was cheer'd, the harbour clear'd, Merrily did we drop Below the kirk, below the hill, 24 Below the lighthouse top. [The following marginal gloss was added in Sibylline Leaves 1817:] 1 An ancient Mariner meeteth three Gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one. 13 The Wedding-Guest is spell-bound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained to hear his tale. The sun came up upon the left, Higher and higher every day, The bride hath paced into the hall, The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, 'And now the Storm-blast came, and he With sloping masts and dipping prow, 25 The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the line. 33 The Wedding-Guest heareth the bridal music; but the Mariner continueth his tale. 41 The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole. 28 32 36 40 44 48 211 And now there came both mist and snow, 52 And it grew wondrous cold: 'God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus! 80 'With my cross-bow I shot the Albatross.' And ice, mast-high, came floating by, Why look'st thou so?' And through the drifts the snowy clifts 56 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, 60 The ice was all around: It crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd and howl'd, Like noises in a swound! At length did cross an Albatross, 64 Thorough the fog it came; 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, And I had done a hellish thing, As if it had been a Christian soul, And it would work 'em woe: It ate the food it ne'er had eat, 68 And round and round it flew. The ice did split with a thunder-fit; The helmsman steer'd us through! And a good south wind sprung up behind; 72 The Albatross did follow, For all averr'd, I had kill'd the bird In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, The fair breeze blew, the white foam 76 It perch'd for vespers nine; 84 88 92 96 100 104 Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt Ah! well a-day! what evil looks down, 108 'Twas sad as sad could be; And we did speak only to break All in a hot and copper sky, 112 The bloody Sun, at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, Day after day, day after day, 116 We stuck, nor breath nor motion; Water, water, every where, The very deep did rot: O Christ! 124 That ever this should be! Had I from old and young! Instead of the Cross, the Albatross Part III. 140 There pass'd a weary time. Each At first it seem'd a little speck, It moved and moved, and took at last A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs As if it dodged a water-sprite, About, about, in reel and rout And some in dreams assured were And every tongue, through utter 136 Was wither'd at the root; 107 The ship hath been suddenly becalmed. 119 And the Albatross begins to be avenged. 131 A Spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither departed 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. It plunged and tack'd and veer'd. With throats unslaked, with black lips We could nor laugh nor wail; I bit my arm, I suck'd the blood, With throats unslaked, with black lips Agape they heard me call: 139 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. 147 The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off. 157 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. 164 A flash of joy. 148 152 156 160 164 Were The naked hulk alongside came, The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: We listen'd and look'd sideways up! 196 200 204 208 228 'I fear thee and thy glittering eye, And thy skinny hand, so brown.' Fear not, fear not, thou WeddingGuest! This body dropt not down. 232 Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! 236 The many men, so beautiful! 240 I look'd upon the rotting sea, 244 I look'd to heaven, and tried to pray; 248 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, 252 And the dead were at my feet. The cold sweat melted from their limbs, Nor rot nor reek did they: The look with which they look'd on me 256 Had never pass'd away. An orphan's curse would drag to hell But oh! more horrible than that 260 Is the curse in a dead man's eye! 230 But the ancient Mariner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance. 236 He despiseth the creatures of the calm. 240 And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead. 253 But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men. Within the shadow of the ship O happy living things! no tongue A spring of love gush'd from my heart, 284 The selfsame moment I could pray; 288 263 In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards 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. 272 By the light of the Moon he beholdeth God's creatures of the great calm. 282 Their beauty and their happiness. 285 He blesseth them in his heart. 288 The spell begins to break. |