In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,

It perched for vespers nine;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke

white,

Glimmered the white moonshine."

"God save thee, Ancient Mariner!

From the fiends, that plague thee thus!
Why look'st thou so?"-" With my

cross-bow

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

Went down into the sea.

And the good south wind still blew be

hind,

But no sweet bird did follow,

Nor any day, for food or play,

Came to the mariners' 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.

'T was right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

The Ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen.

His shipmates
cry out against
the Ancient Mari-
ner, for killing
the bird of good
luck.

But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves accomplices in the crime.

The fair breeze continues the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails north

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

ward, even till it We were the first that ever burst

reaches the line.

The ship hath

been suddenly becalmed;

Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt

down,

'T was 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.

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck,--nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

and the Albatross Water, water everywhere,

begins to be

avenged.

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water everywhere,

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.

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.

Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

A Spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither departed 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 шоге.

The shipmates, in their sore distress, would fain throw the whole guilt on the Ancient Mariner: in sign whereof they hang the dead sea-bird round his neck.

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;

Each

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,
It plunged and tacked and veered.

The Ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element atar off.

At its nearer approach it seemeth him to be a ship; and at a dear ransom he

With throats unslaked, with black lips

baked,

freeth his speech We could nor laugh nor wail;

from the bonds

of thirst.

A flash of joy.

And horror follows. For can it be a ship that comes onward without wind or tide !

It seemeth him

but the skeleton of a ship.

Through utter drought all dumb we
stood!

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-

Without a breeze, without a tide,
She steadies with upright keel!'
The western wave was all a-flame;
The day was well 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 near

Are those her sails that glance in the sun,

Like restless gossameres?

Are those her ribs through which the Sun And its ribs are

Did peer, as through a grate?

And is that woman all her crew?

Is that a death? and are there two?
Is Death that woman's mate?

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.

The naked hulk alongside came,
And the twain were casting dice:

seen as bars on the face of the setting sun. The spectre-woman and her deathmate, and no other on board the skeleton ship.

Like vessel, like crew!

Death and Lifein-Death have diced for the ship's crew, and she (the latter) winneth the An

'The game is done. I've won! I've won!' cient Mariner. Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

No twilight with

The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out; the courts of

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 clombe above the eastern bar,

The horned Moon, with one bright star
Within the nether tip.

the Sun.

At the rising of

the Moon,