I happy homes he

Saw

lear

Of household fures, glen fear and bright. o'er head the glasie se shone His lips wouth'd with a stifled grow breath'a

And fas

At break of
of day:

Thee pious monks

L

of Sant Bamad.

Uttered the aft repeatedt prays,

cred

air

More faint that suss'd wife of use.

Excelsion

And guided by

A frozen, lifeless.

the faichfe home. they found,

Still grasping in his hand of ice The banner with the strange device Excelsior.

September 28. 1841

"Half past 3 o'clock Len

morning. The

COLERIDGE.

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 bidden

"By thy long gray beard and glittering eye, to a wedding

feast, and detaineth one.

The wedding guest is spell-bound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained to

hear his tale.

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

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

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

And listens like a three years' child:

The Mariner hath his will.

10

15

The wedding-guest sat on a stone:

He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner.

20

The Mariner

tells how the
ship sailed
southward
with a good
wind and fair
weather, till
it reached
the line.

The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top.

The sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he!

And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The wedding-guest here beat his breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

25

30