He despiseth

the creatures

of the calm,

And envieth

that they should live,

and so many lie dead.

And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.

The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things
Liv'd on; and so did I.

I look'd upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;

I look'd upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

I look'd to Heaven, and tried to pray;
But or ever a prayer had gusht,

A wicked whisper came, and made

My heart as dry as dust.

I closed my lids, and kept them close,

And the balls like pulses beat;

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and

the sky

Lay, like a cloud, on my weary eye,

And the dead were at my feet.

The cold sweat melted from their limbs,

Nor rot nor reek did they :

The look with which they look'd on me
Had never pass'd away.

An orphan's curse would drag to Hell

A spirit from on high;

But oh! more horrible than that

Is the curse in a dead man's eye!

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.

The moving Moon went up the sky,

And no where did abide :

Softly she was going up,
And a star or two beside-

Her beams bemock'd the sultry main,
Like April hoar-frost spread;

But where the ship's huge shadow lay,
The charmed water burnt alway

A still and awful red.

But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men.

In his loneli

ness and fixedness, he yearneth towards the journeying Moon, and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward; and

every where the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest, and

their native country, and

their own natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords that are certainly expected, and yet there is a silent joy at their arrival.

By the light of the Moon he beholdeth God's creatures of the

great calm.

Beyond the shadow of the ship,

I watch'd the water-snakes:

They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they reared, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watch'd their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,

They coiled and swam;

and every

track

Their beauty and their happiness.

He blesseth them in his heart.

The spell begins to break.

Was a flash of golden fire.

O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare :

A spring of love gusht from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware!

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.

The self same moment I could pray;

And from

my neck so free

The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea.

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

PART THE FIFTH.

Oh SLEEP! it is a gentle thing,

Belov'd from pole to pole!

To Mary Queen the praise be given!

She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,
That slid into my soul.

The silly buckets on the deck,

That had so long remained,

I dreamt that they were filled with dew;

And when I awoke, it rained.

My lips were wet, my throat was cold,

My garments all were dank;

Sure I had drunken in my dreams,

And still my body drank.

By grace of the holy Mother, the

ancient Mari

ner is refreshed with rain.

He heareth

sounds, and

seeth

I moved, and could not feel my limbs:

I was so light-almost

I thought that I had died in sleep,
And was a blessed ghost.

And soon I heard a roaring wind:

It did not come anear;

strange sights But with its sound it shook the sails,

and commo

tions in the

sky and the element.

That were so thin and sere.

The upper air burst into life!
And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
To and fro they were hurried about;
And to and fro, and in and out,

The wan stars danced between.

And the coming wind did roar more loud,

And the sails did sigh like sedge;

And the rain pour'd down from one black

cloud;

The Moon was at its edge.

The thick black cloud was cleft, and still

The Moon was at its side: