The Rime

of the

Ancient Mariner.

IN SEVEN PARTS.

IT is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,

"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:

An ancient
Mariner

meeteth three

Gallants bid

den to a wed

ding-feast, and detaineth

one.

"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.

The wedding. guest is spellbound by the eye of the old

sea-faring

man, and constrained to hear his tale.

The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till

it reached the

line.

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 can not chuse but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed mariner.

The ship was cheer'd, the harbour clear'd,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the light-house top.

The Sun came up upon

Out of the sea came he;

the left,

And he shone bright, and on the right

Went down into the sea.

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her goes

The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,

Yet he can not chuse but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The wedding-
guest heareth
the bridal
music; but
the mariner
continueth
his tale.

The bright-eyed Mariner.

And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he

The ship drawn by a

Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,

And chased us south along.

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 wonderous cold:

storm toward

the south pole.

The land of

ice, and of fearful

sounds, where no living thing was to

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clift
Did send a dismal sheen :

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-
The ice was all between.

be seen.

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around:

It cracked and growled, and roar'd and

howl'd,

Like noises in a swound!

Till a great sea-bird, called the Abaltross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality.

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

As if it had been a Christian soul,

We hailed 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 a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steer'd us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;

The Albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,

Came to the Mariner's hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,

It perch'd for vespers nine;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke

white,

Glimmered the white Moon-shine.

And lo! the
Albatross

proveth a bird
of good omen,
and followeth
the ship as it
returned

northward, through fog and floating ice.

"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!

The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the

pious bird of

good omen.