The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The Bride hath paced into the hall :
Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

"And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'er-taking wings,
And chased us south along.

"With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,

And forward bends his head,

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,
As green as emerald.

66

And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen :

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-
The ice was all between.

"The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around:

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound!

"At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

"It ate the food it ne'er had eat, And round and round it flew,

The ice did split with a thunder-fit ;

The helmsman steered us through!

"And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,

Came to the mariner's hollo!

"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.

"And I had done a hellish thing,

And it would work 'em woe:

For all averr'd I had killed the bird

That made the breeze to blow !

'Ah wretch!' said they, 'the bird to slay, That made the wind 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.

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,

That bring the fog and mist.

"Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,

'Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea.

66 Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

"Water, water everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

"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 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.

Each throat

"There passed a weary time.
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;

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.

"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 nears!

Are those her sails glance in the Sun,
Like restless gossameres ?

"Are those her ribs through which the Sun

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?

"The naked hull alongside came,
And the twain were casting dice;
'The game is done! I've won, I've won!'
Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

"The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out :

At one stride comes the dark;

With far-heard whisper o'er the sea,

Off shot the spectre-bark.

"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 clomb above the eastern bar

The horned Moon, with one bright star

Within the nether tip.

"Four times fifty living men,

(And I heard nor sigh nor groan,)