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A spirit

had follow

ed them;

one of the

invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither de

Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!

That ever this should be!

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

About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.

And some in dreams assured were
Of the spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.

parted souls nor angels; concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or element without one or more.

mates, in

And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;

We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.

The ship Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!

their sore

distress, would fain

throw the Instead of the cross, the Albatross

whole guilt

on the

ancient

Mariner; in sign whereof

they hang the dead

sea-bird round his

neck.

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PART III.

THERE passed a weary time.

throat

Was parched, and glazed each eye.
A weary time! a weary time!
How glazed each weary eye,
When looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky.

At first it seemed a little speck,
And then it seemed a mist;

It moved and moved, and took at last
A certain shape, I wist.

A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!

And still it neared and neared:
As if it dodged a water-sprite,

Each

The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off.

It plunged and tacked and veered.

With throats unslaked, with black

baked,

We could nor laugh nor wail;

lips At its

nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship;

Through utter drought all dumb we stood! and at a

I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,

And cried, A sail! a sail!

With throats unslaked, with black lips

baked,

Agape they heard me call:

Gramercy! they for joy did grin,

And all at once their breath drew in,
As they were drinking all.

See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more!
Hither to work us weal;

dear ransom he freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst.

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that comes Without a breeze, without a tide,

on ward

without wind or tide?

It seemeth

him but the skeleton of a ship.

And its ribs are seen as

bars on the

face of the

setting

She steadies with upright keel!

The western wave was all a-flame,
The day was weil nigh done!
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun;

When that strange shape drove suddenly
Betwixt us and the Sun.

And straight the Sun was flecked with bars,

(Heaven's Mother send us grace!)

As if through a dungeon grate he peered
With broad and burning face.

Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)
How fast she nears and nears!

Are those her sails that glance in the Sun,
Like restless gossameres?

Are those her ribs through which the Sun
Did peer, as through a grate?

And is that Woman all her crew?

Sun. The Is that a Death? and are there two?

spectre

woman Is Death that woman's mate?

and her

deathmate,

and no

other on

board the skeletonship.

Like vessel, like crew!

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,

Death and The naked hulk alongside came,

Life-in

Death have And the twain were casting dice;

diced for

"The game is done! I've won, I've won!" the ship's 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.

We listened and looked sideways up
Fear at my heart, as at a cup,
My life-blood seemed to sip!

The stars were dim, and thick the night,
The steersman'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
Within the nether tip.

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.

Four times fifty living men,
(And I heard nor sign nor groan)
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropped down one by one.

The souls did from their bodies fly,-
They fled to bliss or woe!
And every soul, it passed me by,
Like the whizz of my crossbow !

crew, and she (the latter) winneth the ancient Mariner.

No twilight within the courts of

the sun.

At the rising of the Moon.

One after another,

His shipmates drop down dead.

But Lifein-Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner.

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

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

ding guest is spellbound by

the eye of

the old sea

And listens like a three years' child:

faring man, The Mariner hath his will.

and con

strained to hear his

tale.

The Mariner tells how the

ship sailed

The wedding-guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the light-house top.

The sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he!

southward And he shone bright, and on the right

with a

good wind Went down into the sea.

and fair

weather till

it reached

the Line. Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The wed. The bride hath paced into the hall,

ding guest

heareth

the bridal Red as a rose is she;

music; but

the ma

riner con.

Nodding their heads before her goes

tinueth his The merry minstrelsy,

tale.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;

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