The ship drawn by a storm to ward the south pole. The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, "And now the storm-blast came, and he He struck with his o'ertaking wings, "With sloping masts and dipping prow, 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, The land of ice, and of fearful sounds where no living thing was to be seen. "And through the drifts the snowy clifts Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken- "The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled. "At length did cross an Albatross, As if it had been a Christian soul, "It ate the food it ne'er had eat, The ice did split with a thunder-fit ; "And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did. follow, And every day, for food or play, Came to the mariners' hollo! "In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, It perched for vespers nine; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, "God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus !— Till a great seabird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality. And lo! the Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returned northward through fog and floating ice. The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen. |