T

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky,1
Lay like a load on my weary eye,

And the dead were at my feet.

"The cold sweat melted from their limbs,
Nor rot nor reek did they:

The look with which they looked on me
Had never passed away.

"An orphan's curse would drag to hell

A spirit from on high;

But oh! more horrible than that

Is the curse in a dead man's eye!

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.

"The moving Moon went up the sky,

And nowhere did abide:

Softly she was going up,
And a star or two beside-

31. Can you see any for the unusual length? in the next line?

reason for the repetition in this line, and Does it suggest the load and the weariness

"Her beams bemock'd the sultry main,

Like April hoar-frost spread;

But where the ship's huge shadow lay,
The charmed water burnt alway
A still and awful red.

"Beyond the shadow of the ship,
I watched the water-snakes:

They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they reared, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

"Within the shadow of the ship

I watched their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.

"O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware:

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.32

"The selfsame moment I could pray; And from my neck so free

The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea."

32. This is the turning point of the poem. As soon as the mariner felt in his heart love for the "happy living things," the spell which had been laid on him for the wanton slaying of the albatross began to break. In the third stanza from the end of the poem, this point is clearly brought out.

PART V

SLEEP! it is a gentle thing,

"Beloved from pole to pole!

To Mary Queen the praise be given! She sent the gentle sleep from heaven, That slid into my soul.

"The silly33 buckets on the deck,

That had so long remained,

I dreamt that they were filled with dew; And when I awoke, it rained.

"My lips were wet, my throat was cold, My garments all were dank;

Sure I had drunken in my dreams,
And still my body drank.

"I moved, and could not feel my limbs: I was so light-almost

I thought that I had died in sleep,
And was a blessed ghost.

"And soon I heard a roaring wind:
It did not come anear;

But with its sound it shook the sails,
That were so thin and sere.

34

"The upper air burst into life!
And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
To and fro they were hurried about!
And to and fro, and in and out,
The wan stars danced between.

33. Silly here means helpless, useless.
34. Sheen means bright, glittering.

"And the coming wind did roar more loud, And the sails did sigh like sedge:35

And the rain poured down from one black cloud: The Moon was at its edge.

THEY GROANED, THEY STIRRED, THEY ALL UPROSE

"The thick black cloud was cleft, and still The Moon was at its side:

Like waters shot from some high crag,

35. Note this fine alliterative line.

"

The lightning fell with never a jag,
A river steep and wide.

"The loud wind never reached the ship,
Yet now the ship moved on!

Beneath the lightning and the Moon
The dead men gave a groan.

"They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;

It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise.

"The helmsman steered; the ship moved on;
Yet never a breeze up blew;

The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,
Where they were wont to do;

They raised their limbs like lifeless tools-
We were a ghastly crew.

"The body of my brother's son
Stood by me, knee to knee:

The body and I pulled at one rope,
But he said naught to me."

"I fear thee, ancient Mariner!"

"Be calm, thou Wedding-guest!

"Twas not those souls that fled in pain,

Which to their corses came again,

But a troop of spirits blest:

"For when it dawned-they dropped their arms,
And clustered round the mast;

Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,
And from their bodies passed.