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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.

The wedding-guest sat on a stone:

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He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

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The Mariner

tells how the ship sailed southward with a good

wind and fair weather, till it reached

the line.

The bright-eyed Mariner.

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.

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Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

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The wedding-guest here beat his breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall,

Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The wedding-guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on the ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

With sloping mast and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And south ward aye we fled.

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 through the drifts the snowy clifts

Did send a dismal sheen :

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-
The ice was all between.

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Till a great sea-bird,

called the
Albatross,
came

through
the snow-fog
and was re-
ceived with
great joy
and hospi-
tality.

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.

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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 perched for vespers nine;

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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 !— 80
Why look'st thou so?"-With my crossbow
I shot the albatross.

PART II.

THE sun now rose upon the right:

Out of the sea came he,

Still hid in mist, and on the left

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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 mariner's 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 slay,
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.

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

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The fair

breeze continues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails northward, even

till it reaches the Line.

The ship

hath been suddenly becalmed.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

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Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

All in a hot and copper sky,

The bloody sun, at noon,

Right up above the mast did stand,

No bigger than the moon.

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Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

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