The bodies of the ship's crew are in

spired, and the ship moves on.

And the coming wind did roar more loud,
And the sails did sigh like sedge;

And the rain poured down from one black
cloud;

The Moon was at its edge.

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

Like waters shot from some high crag,
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.

"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

arms,

And clustered round the mast;

But not by

the souls of the men, not by demons of earth or middle air, but by a blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent their down by the

Sweet sounds rose slowly through their

mouths,

And from their bodies passed.

Around, around, flew each sweet sound,

Then darted to the Sun;

Slowly the sounds came back again,

Now mixed, now one by one.

Sometimes a-dropping from the sky
I heard the sky-lark sing;

Sometimes all little birds that are,
How they seemed to fill the sea and air
With their sweet jargoning!

And now 'twas like all instruments,

Now like a lonely flute;

And now it is an angel's song,

That makes the heavens be mute.

It ceased; yet still the sails made on
A pleasant noise till noon,

A noise like of a hidden brook

In the leafy month of June,

invocation of the guardian saint,

The lonesome

Spirit from the south pole carries on the ship as far as the Line, in obedience to the angelic troop, but still requireth vengeance,

The Polar Spirit's fellow. demons, the invisible inhabitants of the element, take

That to the sleeping woods all night
Singeth a quiet tune.

Till noon we quietly sailed on,
Yet never a breeze did breathe:
Slowly and smoothly went the ship,
Moved onward from beneath.

Under the keel nine fathoms deep,
From the land of mist and snow,
The spirit slid and it was he
That made the ship to go.

The sails at noon left off their tune,
And the ship stood still also.

The Sun, right up above the mast,
Had fixed her to the ocean :

But in a minute she 'gan stir,
With a short uneasy motion--
Backwards and forwards half her length
With a short uneasy motion.

Then like a pawing horse let go,
She made a sudden bound:
It flung the blood into my head,
And I fell down in a swound.

How long in that same fit I lay,
I have not to declare ;

But ere my living life returned,
I heard, and in my soul discerned
Two voices in the air.

'Is it he?' quoth one, 'is this the man?

By him who died on cross,

With his cruel bow he laid full low
The harmless Albatross.

The Spirit who bideth by himself
In the land of mist and snow,

He loved the bird that loved the man
Who shot him with his bow.'

The other was a softer voice,

As soft as honey-dew:

Quoth he, The man hath penance done,

And penance more will do.'

part in his wrong; and two of them relate, one to the other, that penance long and heavy for the ancient Mariner hath been accorded to the Polar Spirit, who returneth southward.

PART VI.

FIRST VOICE.

'But tell me, tell me ! speak again,
Thy soft response renewing-

What makes that ship drive on so fast?
What is the ocean doing?'

SECOND VOICE.

'Still as a slave before his lord.

The ocean hath no blast;

His great bright eye most silently
Up to the Moon is cast-

the vessel to

If he may know which way to go;
For she guides him smooth or grim.
See, brother, see! how graciously
She looketh down on him.'

FIRST VOICE.

'But why drives on that ship so fast,
Without or wave or wind?'

SECOND VOICE.

drive northward The air is cut away before, And closes from behind.

faster than

human life

could endure,

The superna

Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high !
Or we shall be belated:

For slow and slow that ship will go,
When the Mariner's trance is abated.'

I woke, and we were sailing on is retarded; the As in a gentle weather:

tural motion

Mariner awakes 'Twas night, calm night, the Moon was and his penance high;

begins anew.

The dead men stood together.

All stood together on the deck,
For a charnel-dungeon fitter :
All fixed on me their stony eyes,
That in the Moon did glitter.

The pang, the curse, with which they died,
Had never passed away :

I could not draw my eyes from theirs,
Nor turn them up to pray.