SECOND VOICE. The air is cut away before, And closes from behind. "Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high! Or we shall be belated: For slow and slow that ship-will go, When the Mariner's trance is abated.' "I woke, and we were sailing on As in a gentle weather : "T was night, calm night, the moon was high; The dead men stood together. "All stood together on the deck, For a charnel-dungeon fitter: All fixed on me their stony eyes, That in the Moon did glitter. "The pang, the curse, with which they died, Had never passed away : I could not draw my eyes from theirs, "And now this spell was snapt: once more I viewed the ocean green, And looked far forth, yet little saw Of what had else been seen, "Like one that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread. "But soon there breathed a wind on me, Nor sound nor motion made: Its path was not upon In ripple or in shade. the sea, "It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek, Like a meadow-gale of spring, It mingled strangely with my fears, "Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed Is this the hill? is this the kirk? "We drifted o'er the harbor-bar, O let me be awake, my God! "The harbor-bay was clear as glass, So smoothly it was strewn! And on the bay the moonlight lay, "The rock shone bright, the kirk no less, That stands above the rock: The moonlight steeped in silentness The steady weathercock. "And the bay was white with silent light, Till, rising from the same, Full many shapes, that shadows were, "A little distance from the prow I turned my eyes upon the deck,- "Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat, And, by the holy rood! A man all light, a scraph-man, On every corse there stood. "This seraph-band, each waved his hand, It was a heavenly sight! They stood as signals to the land, Each one a lovely light; "This scraph-band, each waved his hand, No voice did they impart, No voice; but oh! the silence sank Like music on my heart. "But soon I heard the dash of oars, My head was turned perforce away, "The Pilot and the Pilot's boy, Dear Lord in heaven! it was a joy "I saw a third, I heard his voice: It is the Hermit good! He singeth loud his godly hymns That he makes in the wood. He'll shrive my soul, he 'll wash away The Albatross's blood." VII. "THIS Hermit good lives in that wood How loudly his sweet voice he rears! That come from a far countree. "The skiff-boat neared: I heard them talk, 'Why, this is strange, I trow! Where are those lights so many and fair, 666 Strange, by my faith!' the Hermit said, 'And they answered not our cheer. The planks look warped! and see those sails, I never saw aught like to them, 66 6 Brown skeletons of leaves that lag My forest-brook along; When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow, And the owlet whoops to the wolf below, Dear Lord! it hath a fiendish look, (The Pilot made reply) I am a-feared.' 'Push on, push on!' Said the Hermit cheerily. "The boat came closer to the ship, The boat came close beneath the ship, "Under the water it rumbled on, |