He swept the sounding chords along;
The present scene, the future lot,
His toils, his wants, were all forgot;
Cold diffidence, and age's frost,

In the full tide of song were lost.
Each blank, in faithless memory void,
The poet's glowing thoughts supplied;
And while his harp responsive rung,
'Twas thus the LATEST MINSTREL Sung.

THE

RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

IN SEVEN PARTS.

BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

[SAMUEL TAYLor Coleridge, the son of the vicar of Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, was born on the 20th of October, 1772. He received his education in Christ's Hospital, where Charles Lamb was his schoolfellow. From Christ's Hospital he went to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he emained from 1791 to 1793. He left college abruptly, and enlisted as a soldier in the 15th-Elliot's Light Dragoons. Discovered by his friends, he returned for a short time to college. Coleridge, at this time, was a Socinian and a Republican; and, in conjunction with three other poetical enthusiasts-Wordsworth, Southey, and Lloyd-he resolved to emigrate to America, and found a Pantisocracy, or republic of pure freedom. This idea was not realized; afterwards Coleridge, Southey, and Lloyd married three sisters-the Misses Fricker of Bristol. Coleridge took up his abode among the northern lakes, where he wrote many poetical pieces, the most popular of which is "The Ancient Mariner," and some prose works on theology, history, and politics. Opium-eating, to which he had at first recourse from its medicinal effects, disturbed his mental powers; and he found an asylum at the house of Mr. James Gilman, surgeon, at Highgate. He lived here for nineteen years, delighting his friends by his wonderful powers of conversation. He died on the 28th of July, 1834.]

FACILE credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles in rerum universitate. Sed horum omnium familiam quis nobis enarrabit, et gradus et cognationes et discrimina et singulorum munera? Quid agunt? Quæ loca habitant? Harum rerum notitiam semper ambivit ingenium humanum, nunquam attigit. Juvat, interea, non diffiteor, quandoque in animo, tanquam in tabulâ, majoris et melioris mundi imaginem contemplari: ne mens assuefacta hodiernæ vitæ minutiis se contrahat nimis, et tota subsidat in pusillas cogitationes. Sed veritati interea invigilandum est, modusque servandus, ut certa ab incertis, diem a nocte, distinguamus. T.

BURNET. ARCHEOL. PHIL. p. 68.

An ancient Mari

ner meeteth three

gallants bidden

to a wedding

PART I.

IT is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

feast, and detain "By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,

eth one.

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

"The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,

And I am next of kin ;

The guests are met, the feast is set :

May'st hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand,

There was a ship," quoth he.

"Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!" Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

FF

He holds him with his glittering eye-
The Wedding-Guest stood still,

And listens like a three years' child:

The Mariner hath his will.

The Mariner tells

how the ship

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:

He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner.

"The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top.

"The sun came up upon the left,

sailed southward Out of the sea came he!

with a good wind

and fair weather And he shone bright, and on the right

till it reached the

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

The Wedding

Guest heareth

The Bride hath paced into the hall,

the bridal music; Red as a rose is she;

but the Mariner

continueth his

tale.

Nodding their heads before her goes

The merry minstrelsy.