"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;

And he shone bright, and on the right

Went down into the sea;

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 that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner:

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

line.

The Wedding-
Guest heareth
the bridal music;
but the Mariner
continueth his

tale.

"And now the Storm-blast came, and he The ship drawn

Was tyrannous and strong;

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,

And chased us south along.

With sloping masts and dipping prow

As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,

And forward bends his head

by a storm toward the south pole.

The land of ice
and of fearful
sounds.
where no living
thing was to be

seen.

Till a great seabird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog, and

was received with great joy and hospitality.

And lo! the Al

batross proveth a bird of good omen, and fol

loweth the ship as it returned

northward

through fog

The ship drove fast; loud roared the blast,

And southward 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 cliffs
Did send a dismal sheen;

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

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around;

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,

Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross an Albatross-
Thorough the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

It ate the food it ne'er had eat,

And round and round it flew.

The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up be

hind;

The Albatross did follow,

and floating ice. And every day, for food or play,

Came to the mariners' hollo!