THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

PART THE SECOND.

THE Sun now rose

upon the right:

His shipmates cry out against the

ancient Mariner,for killing the bird of good luck.

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,

The furrow* stream'd off free:

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt

down,

'Twas sad as sad could be;

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

ly becalmed.

The silence of the sea!

* 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.

And some in dreams assured were
Of the spirit that plagued us so :
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.

And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was wither'd at the root;

We could not speak, no more than if

We had been choak'd with soot.

may be consulted.

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 Constantino

politan, Michael Psellus,

They are very numerous, and there is no

climate or element without one or more.

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks

Had I from old and young!

Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was hung.

The ship

mates, 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.

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

PART THE THIRD.

The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the ele

ment afar off.

THERE passed a weary time. Each throat
Was parched, and glazed each eye.
A weary time! a weary time!
How glazed each weary eye!
When looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky.

At first it seem'd a little speck,

And then it seem'd a mist:

It moved and moved, and took at last

A certain shape, I wist.

A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!

And still it near'd and near❜d:
And as if it dodged a water-sprite,
It plunged and tack'd and veer'd.