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I heard, and in my soul discerned

Two voices in the air.

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

By Him who died on cross,

With his cruel bow he laid full low

The harmless Albatross.

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"The spirit who bideth by himself

In the land of mist and snow,

He loved the bird that loved the man

Who shot him with his bow."

The other was a softer voice,

As soft as honey-dew:

Quoth he, "The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do."

PART VI.

FIRST VOICE.

BUT tell me, tell me! speak again,

Thy soft. response renewing

What makes that ship drive on so fast?

What is the ocean doing?

SECOND VOICE.

Still as a slave before his lord,

The ocean hath no blast;

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Her lips were red, her looks were free, 190
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.

The naked hulk alongside came,

And the twain were casting dice;

"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 the rising We listened and looked sideways up!

of the moon.

One after another,

Fear at my heart, as at a cup,

My life-blood seemed to sip!

The stars were dim, and thick the night,

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The steerman's face by his lamp gleamed

white;

From the sails the dew did drip

Till clomb above the eastern bar

The horned moon, with one bright star 210

Within the nether tip.

One after one, by the star-dogged moon,
Too quick for groan or sigh,

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"I FEAR thee, ancient Mariner !

I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou are long, and lank, and brown,

As is the ribbed sea-sand.1

I fear thee and thy glittering eye,

And thy skinny hand, so brown.”.
Fear not, fear not, thou wedding-guest!
This body dropt not down.

The wedding guest

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1 For the last two lines of this stanza, I am indebted to Mr. Wordsworth. It was on a delightful walk from Nether Stowey to Dulverton, with him and his sister, in the autumn of 1797, that this poem was planned, and in part composed."

But the ancient Mari

ner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide wide sea!

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

He despiseth The many men, so beautiful!

the creatures

of the calm.

And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.

But the

curse liveth for him in

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.

I looked upon the rotting sea,

And drew my eyes away;

I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

I looked 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;

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For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky

Lay like a load on my weary eye,

And the dead were at my feet.

The cold sweat melted from their limbs,
Nor rot nor reek did they :

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The look with which they looked on me
Had never passed 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 :

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Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside

wards 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.

Her beams bemocked the sultry main,

Like April hoar-frost spread;

But where the ship's huge shadow lay,

The charmed water burned alway

A still and awful red.

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.

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

great calm.

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