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.

Till a great sea-bird, called the Abaltross, came through the snow-fog,

and was received with

great joy and hospitality.

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!

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.

"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!

And lo! the Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returned

northward, through fog and floating ice.

The ancient Mariner inhospitably

killeth the

pious bird of

good omen.

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

PART THE SECOND.

His shipmates cry out against the

ancient Mariner,for killing the bird of good luck.

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 mariners' hollo!

And I had done an hellish thing,

And it would work 'em woe:

For all averred, I had killed the bird

That made the breeze to blow.

Ah wretch! said they, the bird to sla

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.

But when the fog cleared off, they jus. tify the sameand thus

make them

selves accom,

"Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, plices in the

That bring the fog and mist.

crime.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

ship enters

the Pacific Ocean and sails northward, even

till it reaches the Line.

The ship hath

been sudden

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

ly becalmed.

* In the former edition the line was,

The furrow follow'd free;

but I had not been long on board a ship, before I perceived that this was the image as seen by a spectator from the shore, or from another vessel. From the ship itself the Wake appears like a brook flowing off from the stern.

And the Albatross begins to be avenged.

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, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

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
The death-fires danced at night;

The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.