The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

I fear thee, ancient Mariner!

I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou art long, and lank, and brown,

As is the ribbed sea-sand.

"Ha! ha!" quoth he, "full plain I see,

The Devil knows how to row."

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on

My soul in agony.

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell

To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!

''' He prayeth well, who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast.

We were a ghastly crew.

Beyond the shadow of the ship,

I watched the water-snakes:

They moved in tracks of shining white,

And when they reared, the elfish light

Fell off in hoary flakes.

Is this the hill? is this the kirk?

Is this mine own countree?

So lonely 't was, that God himself

Scarce seemed there to be.

The moving Moon went up the sky,

And no where did abide:

Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside.

No voice; but oh! the silence sank

Like music on my heart.

It ceased; yet still the sails made on

A pleasant noise till noon,

A noise like of a hidden brook

In the leafy month of June,

That to the sleeping woods all night

Singeth a quiet tune.

I pass, like night, from land to land;

I have strange power of speech;

That moment that his face I see,

I know the man that must hear me:

To him my tale I teach.

The self-same moment I could pray;

And from my neck so free

The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea.

Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing,

Beloved from pole to pole.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watched their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,

They coiled and swam; and every track

Was a flash of golden fire.

Like one that on a lonesome road

Doth walk in fear and dread,

And having once turned round walks on,

And turns no more his head;

Because he knows, a frightful fiend

Doth close behind him tread.

O happy living things! no tongue

Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gushed from my heart,

And I blessed them unaware:

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,

And I blessed them unaware.

The man hath penance done,

And penance more will do.

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,

Whose beard with age is hoar,

Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest

Turned from the bridegroom's door. He went like one that hath been stunned,

And is of sense forlorn:

A sadder and a wiser man,

He rose the morrow morn.

And the owlet whoops to the wolf below,

That eats the she-wolf's young.

The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things

Lived on; and so did I.

'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the man?'

By him who died on the cross,

With his cruel bow he laid full low

The harmless Albatross

An orphan's curse would drag to Hell

A spirit from on high;

But oh! more horrible than that

Is a curse in a dead man's eye!

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,

And yet I could not die.

The spirit who bideth by himself

In the land of mist and snow,

He loved the bird that loved the man

That shot him with his bow.

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

The hornèd Moon, with one bright star

Within the nether tip.

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!

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free:

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

"The game is done! I've won, I've won!"

Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out:

At one stride comes the dark;

With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea.

Off shot the spectre-bark.

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 bride hath paced into the hall,

Red as a rose is she.

It is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

"By thy long gray beard and glittering eye,

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?"

The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the light-house top.

"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 now there came both mist and snow,

And it grew wondrous cold:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,

As green as emerald.

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 slay,

That made the breeze to blow!

One after one, by the star-dogged Moon,

Too quick for groan or sigh,

Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,

And cursed me with his eye.

I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,

And cried, A sail! a sail!

Without a breeze, without a tide,

She steadies with upright keel.

He holds him with his glittering eye —

The Wedding-Guest stood still,

And listens like a three years child:

The Mariner hath his will.

Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was hung.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!

That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy sea.

Her lips were red, her looks were free,

Her locks were yellow as gold:

Her skin was as white as leprosy,

The Night-Mare Life-in-Death was she,

Who thicks man's blood with cold.

About, about, in reel and rout

The death fires danced at night.

We listened and looked sideways up!

Fear at my heart, as at a cup,

My life-blood seemed to sip!

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.

( 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.

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.