The

Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

IN SEVEN PARTS.

FACILE credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles in rerum universitate. Sed horum omnium familiam quis nobis enarrabit, et gradus et cognationes et discrimina et singulorum munera ? Quid agunt? quæ loca habitant? Harum rerum notitiam semper ambivit ingenium humanum, nunquam attigit. Juvat, interea, non diffiteor, quandoque in animo, tanquam in tabulâ, majoris et melioris mundi imaginem contemplari; ne mens assuefacta hodiernæ vitæ minutiis se contrahat nimis, et tota subsidat in pusillas cogitationes. Sed veritati interea invigilandum est, modusque servandus, ut certa ab incertis, diem a nocte, distinguamus. T.-BURNET. ARCHEOL. PHIL. p. 68.

PART I.

IT is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

An ancient Mariner meeteth three gallants, bid

"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, denta

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ?

"The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide, And I am next of kin ;

The guests are met, the feast is set:

May'st hear the merry

din."

He holds him with his skinny hand, "There was a ship," quoth he.

weddingfeast, and detaineth

one.

“Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

The wed- He holds him with his glittering eye-
The wedding-guest stood still,

ding guest is spellbound by

the eye of

the old sea

And listens like a three years' child:

faring man, The Mariner hath his will.

and con

strained to hear his

tale.

The Mariner tells how the

ship sailed

The wedding-guest sat on a stone:

He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the light-house top.

The sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he!

southward And he shone bright, and on the right

with a

good wind Went down into the sea.

and fair

weather till

it reached

the Line. Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

a. The wed. The bride hath paced into the hall,

ding guest

heareth

the bridal Red as a rose is she;

music; but

the ma- Nodding their heads before her goes

riner con.

tinueth his The merry minstrelsy.

tale.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

And now the storm-blast came, and he
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 roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled,

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,

As

green as emerald.

And through the drifts the

Did send a dismal sheen:

snowy

clifts

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

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:

It cracked and growled, and roared and

howled,

Like noises in a swound!

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.

The ship drawn by a storm towards the

south pole.

The land of ice, and of fearful sounds, where no living thing

was to be

seen.

Till a great sea-bird, called the Albatross,

came through the snow

fog, and

was receiv It ate the food it ne'er had eat,

ed with

great joy

and hospitality.

And lo!

the Alba

And round and round it flew.

The ice did split with a thunder-fit ;
The helmsman steered us through.

And a good south wind sprung up behind;

tross prov The Albatross did follow,

eth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returneth north ward through fog and floating ice.

The an

cient ma

And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke
white,

Glimmered the white moon-shine.

"God save thee, ancient Mariner!

riner inhos- From the fiends, that plague thee thus!

pitably

killeth the

pious bird Why look'st thou so?" With my cross

of good

omen.

His ship

bow

I shot the Albatross./

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,

Nor any day for food or play

Came to the mariner's hollo!

And I had done a hellish thing,

mates cry And it would work 'em woe:

out against

For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.

Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious Sun uprist:

Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.

"Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good luck.

But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves accomplices in the crime.

The fair breeze con

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, tinues; the

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea!

ship enters
the Pacific
Ocean, and
sails north-
ward, even
till it
reaches
the Line.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt The ship

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,

No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

hath been suddenly becalmed.

And the Albatross begins to be aveng ed.