THE ANCIENT MARINER. Stunned by that loud and dreadful sound, Which sky and ocean smote, Like one that hath been seven days drowned, My body lay afloat; But, swift as dreams, myself I found Within the pilot's boat. Upon the whirl, where sank the ship, I moved my lips, the pilot shrieked, And fell down in a fit; The holy hermit raised his eyes, I took the oars: the pilot's boy, Laughed loud and long, and all the while "Ha! ha!" quoth he, "full plain I see, And now, all in my own countree, I stood on the firm land; The hermit stepped forth from the boat, "O, shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man!" The hermit crossed his brow. 66 Say quick," quoth he, "I bid thee say What manner of man art thou? Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched 409 The ancient mariner is saved in the pilot' boat. The ancien mariner earnestly entreateth the hermit to shrieve him ; and the penance of life falls on him: 410 And ever and anon, THE ANCIENT MARINER. Which forced me to begin my tale; Since then, at an uncertain hour, throughout That agony returns: his future life, an ago. And till my ghastly tale is told, This heart within me burns. ny con straineth him to trav et from land to land, I pass like night from land to land ; What loud uproar bursts from that door! The wedding-guests are there: But in the garden bower the bride O wedding-guest! this soul hath been So lonely 't was, that God himself O, sweeter than the marriage-feast, To walk together to the kirk To walk together to the kirk, While each to his great Father bends, And youths and maidens gay! THE ANCIENT MAKINER. Farewell, farewell! but this I tel! He prayeth west who loveth best The mariner, whose eye is bright, He went like one that hath been stunned A sadder and a wiser man He rose the morrow morn. 411 Acd to teach, by his own exam ple, love and reverence to all things that God made and loveth. MIRABEAU.— Sterling. Nor oft has peopled Earth sent up For well the startled sense divined A greater power had fled away Than aught that now remained behind. The scathed and haggard face of will, And look so strong with weaponed thought, Had been to many million hearts The All between themselves and naught; And so they stood aghast and pale, Come shattering down, and show beyond For he, while all men trembling peered And when his voice could rule no more, A myriad hands like shadows weak, Or stiff and sharp as bestial claws, And quailed beneath the living grasp France did not reck how fierce a storm When death sank heavily on him ; Were summed for him as guilt and shame. The wondrous life that flowed so long, M.RABEAU. It rolled with mighty breadth and sound And left a barren waste of sand.. To them at first the world appeared Of him who lived the People's King. O wasted strength! O light and calm Poured down by too benignant Heaven. The mountain hears the torrent dash, Those eyes that joyous drink the sun: Calls down the flash, as if its fires A crown of peaceful glory shed. Alas!-Yet wherefore mourn? The law 413 |