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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=512871" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">IN SEVEN PARTS</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Facile credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles in rerum<br>universitate. Sed horum omnium familiam quis nobis enarrabit ? et gradus et<br>cognationes et discrimina et singulorum munera ? Quid agunt ? quae loca<br>habitant ? Harum rerum notitiam semper ambivit ingenium humanum, nunquam<br>attigit. Juvat, interea, non diffiteor, quandoque in animo, tanquam in<br>tabulâ, majoris et melioris mundi imaginem contemplari : ne mens assuefacta<br>hodiernae vitae minutiis se contrahat nimis, et tota subsidat in pusillas<br>cogitationes. Sed veritati interea invigilandum est, modusque servandus, ut<br>certa ab incertis, diem a nocte, distinguamus. - T. Burnet, Archaeol.<br>Phil., p. 68 (slightly edited by Coleridge).</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Translation<br>  -------------------</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ARGUMENT</div><div style="margin:10px 0">How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country<br>towards the South Pole ; and how from thence she made her course to the<br>tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean ; and of the strange things<br>that befell ; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own<br>Country.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">PART I</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An ancient Mariner meeteth three Gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and<br>detaineth one.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> It is an ancient Mariner,<br> And he stoppeth one of three.<br> `By thy long beard and glittering eye,<br> Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ?</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,<br> And I am next of kin ;<br> The guests are met, the feast is set :<br> May'st hear the merry din.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> He holds him with his skinny hand,<br> `There was a ship,' quoth he.<br> `Hold off ! unhand me, grey-beard loon !'<br> Eftsoons his hand dropt he.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Wedding-Guest is spell-bound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and<br>constrained to hear his tale.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> He holds him with his glittering eye--<br> The Wedding-Guest stood still,<br> And listens like a three years' child :<br> The Mariner hath his will.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone :<br> He cannot choose but hear ;<br> And thus spake on that ancient man,<br> The bright-eyed Mariner.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,<br> Merrily did we drop<br> Below the kirk, below the hill,<br> Below the lighthouse top.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair<br>weather, till it reached the Line.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Sun came up upon the left,<br> Out of the sea came he !<br> And he shone bright, and on the right<br> Went down into the sea.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Higher and higher every day,<br> Till over the mast at noon--'<br> The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,<br> For he heard the loud bassoon.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Wedding-Guest heareth the bridal music ; but the Mariner continueth his<br>tale.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The bride hath paced into the hall,<br> Red as a rose is she ;<br> Nodding their heads before her goes<br> The merry minstrelsy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,<br> Yet he cannot choose but hear ;<br> And thus spake on that ancient man,<br> The bright-eyed Mariner.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he<br> Was tyrannous and strong :<br> He struck with his o'ertaking wings,<br> And chased us south along.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> With sloping masts and dipping prow,<br> As who pursued with yell and blow<br> Still treads the shadow of his foe,<br> And forward bends his head,<br> The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,<br> The southward aye we fled.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And now there came both mist and snow,<br> And it grew wondrous cold :<br> And ice, mast-high, came floating by,<br> As green as emerald.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The land of ice, and of fearful sounds where no living thing was to be<br>seen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And through the drifts the snowy clifts<br> Did send a dismal sheen :<br> Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--<br> The ice was all between.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The ice was here, the ice was there,<br> The ice was all around :<br> It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,<br> Like noises in a swound !</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Till a great sea-bird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog, and<br>was received with great joy and hospitality.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> At length did cross an Albatross,<br> Thorough the fog it came ;<br> As if it had been a Christian soul,<br> We hailed it in God's name.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> It ate the food it ne'er had eat,<br> And round and round it flew.<br> The ice did split with a thunder-fit ;<br> The helmsman steered us through !</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And lo ! the Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship<br>as it returned northward through fog and floating ice.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And a good south wind sprung up behind ;<br> The Albatross did follow,<br> And every day, for food or play,<br> Came to the mariner's hollo !</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,<br> It perched for vespers nine ;<br> Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,<br> Glimmered the white Moon-shine.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `God save thee, ancient Mariner !<br> From the fiends, that plague thee thus !--<br> Why look'st thou so ?'--With my cross-bow<br> I shot the ALBATROSS.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">PART II</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Sun now rose upon the right :<br> Out of the sea came he,<br> Still hid in mist, and on the left<br> Went down into the sea.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And the good south wind still blew behind,<br> But no sweet bird did follow,<br> Nor any day for food or play<br> Came to the mariners' hollo !</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of<br>good luck.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And I had done an hellish thing,<br> And it would work 'em woe :<br> For all averred, I had killed the bird<br> That made the breeze to blow.<br> Ah wretch ! said they, the bird to slay,<br> That made the breeze to blow !</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make<br>themselves accomplices in the crime.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,<br> The glorious Sun uprist :<br> Then all averred, I had killed the bird<br> That brought the fog and mist.<br> 'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,<br> That bring the fog and mist.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The fair breeze continues ; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails<br>northward, even till it reaches the Line.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,<br> The furrow followed free ;<br> We were the first that ever burst<br> Into that silent sea.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ship hath been suddenly becalmed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,<br> 'Twas sad as sad could be ;<br> And we did speak only to break<br> The silence of the sea !</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> All in a hot and copper sky,<br> The bloody Sun, at noon,<br> Right up above the mast did stand,<br> No bigger than the Moon.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Day after day, day after day,<br> We stuck, nor breath nor motion ;<br> As idle as a painted ship<br> Upon a painted ocean.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the Albatross begins to be avenged.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Water, water, every where,<br> And all the boards did shrink ;<br> Water, water, every where,<br> Nor any drop to drink.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The very deep did rot : O Christ !<br> That ever this should be !<br> Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs<br> Upon the slimy sea.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> About, about, in reel and rout<br> The death-fires danced at night ;<br> The water, like a witch's oils,<br> Burnt green, and blue and white.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A Spirit had followed them ; one of the invisible inhabitants of this<br>planet, neither departed souls nor angels ; concerning whom the learned<br>Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be<br>consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or element<br>without one or more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And some in dreams assuréd were<br> Of the Spirit that plagued us so ;<br> Nine fathom deep he had followed us<br> From the land of mist and snow.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And every tongue, through utter drought,<br> Was withered at the root ;<br> We could not speak, no more than if<br> We had been choked with soot.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The shipmates, in their sore distress, would fain throw the whole guilt on<br>the ancient Mariner : in sign whereof they hang the dead sea-bird round his<br>neck.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks<br> Had I from old and young !<br> Instead of the cross, the Albatross<br> About my neck was hung.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">PART III</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> There passed a weary time. Each throat<br> Was parched, and glazed each eye.<br> A weary time ! a weary time !<br> How glazed each weary eye,<br> When looking westward, I beheld<br> A something in the sky.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> At first it seemed a little speck,<br> And then it seemed a mist ;<br> It moved and moved, and took at last<br> A certain shape, I wist.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist !<br> And still it neared and neared :<br> As if it dodged a water-sprite,<br> It plunged and tacked and veered.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At its nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship ; and at a dear ransom<br>he freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,<br> We could nor laugh nor wail ;<br> Through utter drought all dumb we stood !<br> I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,<br> And cried, A sail ! a sail !</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A flash of joy ;</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,<br> Agape they heard me call :<br> Gramercy ! they for joy did grin,<br> And all at once their breath drew in,<br> As they were drinking all.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And horror follows. For can it be a ship that comes onward without wind or<br>tide ?</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> See ! see ! (I cried) she tacks no more !<br> Hither to work us weal ;<br> Without a breeze, without a tide,<br> She steadies with upright keel !</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The western wave was all a-flame.<br> The day was well nigh done !<br> Almost upon the western wave<br> Rested the broad bright Sun ;<br> When that strange shape drove suddenly<br> Betwixt us and the Sun.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It seemeth him but the skeleton of a ship.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And straight the Sun was flecked with bars,<br> (Heaven's Mother send us grace !)<br> As if through a dungeon-grate he peered<br> With broad and burning face.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And its ribs are seen as bars on the face of the setting Sun.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Alas ! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)<br> How fast she nears and nears !<br> Are those her sails that glance in the Sun,<br> Like restless gossameres ?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Spectre-Woman and her Death-mate, and no other on board the skeleton<br>ship.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And those her ribs through which the Sun<br> Did peer, as through a grate ?<br> And is that Woman all her crew ?<br> Is that a DEATH ? and are there two ?<br> Is DEATH that woman's mate ?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">[first version of this stanza through the end of Part III]</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Like vessel, like crew !</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Her lips were red, her looks were free,<br> Her locks were yellow as gold :<br> Her skin was as white as leprosy,<br> The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,<br> Who thicks man's blood with cold.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Death and Life-in-Death have diced for the ship's crew, and she (the<br>latter) winneth the ancient Mariner.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The naked hulk alongside came,<br> And the twain were casting dice ;<br> `The game is done ! I've won ! I've won !'<br> Quoth she, and whistles thrice.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No twilight within the courts of the Sun.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Sun's rim dips ; the stars rush out :<br> At one stride comes the dark ;<br> With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea,<br> Off shot the spectre-bark.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At the rising of the Moon,</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> We listened and looked sideways up !<br> Fear at my heart, as at a cup,<br> My life-blood seemed to sip !<br> The stars were dim, and thick the night,<br> The steerman's face by his lamp gleamed white ;<br> From the sails the dew did drip--<br> Till clomb above the eastern bar<br> The hornéd Moon, with one bright star<br> Within the nether tip.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One after another,</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> One after one, by the star-dogged Moon,<br> Too quick for groan or sigh,<br> Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,<br> And cursed me with his eye.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His shipmates drop down dead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Four times fifty living men,<br> (And I heard nor sigh nor groan)<br> With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,<br> They dropped down one by one.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But Life-in-Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The souls did from their bodies fly,--<br> They fled to bliss or woe !<br> And every soul, it passed me by,<br> Like the whizz of my cross-bow !</div><div style="margin:10px 0">PART IV</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Wedding-Guest feareth that a Spirit is talking to him ;</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `I fear thee, ancient Mariner !<br> I fear thy skinny hand !<br> And thou art long, and lank, and brown,<br> As is the ribbed sea-sand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">(Coleridge's note on above stanza)</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I fear thee and thy glittering eye,<br> And thy skinny hand, so brown.'--<br> Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest !<br> This body dropt not down.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the ancient Mariner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to<br>relate his horrible penance.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Alone, alone, all, all alone,<br> Alone on a wide wide sea !<br> And never a saint took pity on<br> My soul in agony.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He despiseth the creatures of the calm,</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The many men, so beautiful !<br> And they all dead did lie :<br> And a thousand thousand slimy things<br> Lived on ; and so did I.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I looked upon the rotting sea,<br> And drew my eyes away ;<br> I looked upon the rotting deck,<br> And there the dead men lay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I looked to heaven, and tried to pray ;<br> But or ever a prayer had gusht,<br> A wicked whisper came, and made<br> My heart as dry as dust.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I closed my lids, and kept them close,<br> And the balls like pulses beat ;<br> For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky<br> Lay like a load on my weary eye,<br> And the dead were at my feet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The cold sweat melted from their limbs,<br> Nor rot nor reek did they :<br> The look with which they looked on me<br> Had never passed away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> An orphan's curse would drag to hell<br> A spirit from on high ;<br> But oh ! more horrible than that<br> Is the curse in a dead man's eye !<br> Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,<br> And yet I could not die.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying Moon,<br>and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward ; and every where<br>the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest, and their native<br>country and their own natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords<br>that are certainly expected and yet there is a silent joy at their arrival.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The moving Moon went up the sky,<br> And no where did abide :<br> Softly she was going up,<br> And a star or two beside--</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Her beams bemocked the sultry main,<br> Like April hoar-frost spread ;<br> But where the ship's huge shadow lay,<br> The charméd water burnt alway<br> A still and awful red.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">By the light of the Moon he beholdeth God's creatures of the great calm.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Beyond the shadow of the ship,<br> I watched the water-snakes :<br> They moved in tracks of shining white,<br> And when they reared, the elfish light<br> Fell off in hoary flakes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Within the shadow of the ship<br> I watched their rich attire :<br> Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,<br> They coiled and swam ; and every track<br> Was a flash of golden fire.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Their beauty and their happiness.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He blesseth them in his heart.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> O happy living things ! no tongue<br> Their beauty might declare :<br> A spring of love gushed from my heart,<br> And I blessed them unaware :<br> Sure my kind saint took pity on me,<br> And I blessed them unaware.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The spell begins to break.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The self-same moment I could pray ;<br> And from my neck so free<br> The Albatross fell off, and sank<br> Like lead into the sea.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">PART V</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Oh sleep ! it is a gentle thing,<br> Beloved from pole to pole !<br> To Mary Queen the praise be given !<br> She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,<br> That slid into my soul.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">By grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The silly buckets on the deck,<br> That had so long remained,<br> I dreamt that they were filled with dew ;<br> And when I awoke, it rained.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> My lips were wet, my throat was cold,<br> My garments all were dank ;<br> Sure I had drunken in my dreams,<br> And still my body drank.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I moved, and could not feel my limbs :<br> I was so light--almost<br> I thought that I had died in sleep,<br> And was a blesséd ghost.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He heareth sounds and seeth strange sights and commotions in the sky and<br>the element.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And soon I heard a roaring wind :<br> It did not come anear ;<br> But with its sound it shook the sails,<br> That were so thin and sere.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The upper air burst into life !<br> And a hundred fire-flags sheen,<br> To and fro they were hurried about !<br> And to and fro, and in and out,<br> The wan stars danced between.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And the coming wind did roar more loud,<br> And the sails did sigh like sedge ;<br> And the rain poured down from one black cloud ;<br> The Moon was at its edge.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The thick black cloud was cleft, and still<br> The Moon was at its side :<br> Like waters shot from some high crag,<br> The lightning fell with never a jag,<br> A river steep and wide.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The bodies of the ship's crew are inspired, and the ship moves on ;</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The loud wind never reached the ship,<br> Yet now the ship moved on !<br> Beneath the lightning and the Moon<br> The dead men gave a groan.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,<br> Nor spake, nor moved their eyes ;<br> It had been strange, even in a dream,<br> To have seen those dead men rise.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The helmsman steered, the ship moved on ;<br> Yet never a breeze up-blew ;<br> The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,<br> Where they were wont to do ;<br> They raised their limbs like lifeless tools--<br> We were a ghastly crew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The body of my brother's son<br> Stood by me, knee to knee :<br> The body and I pulled at one rope,<br> But he said nought to me.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But not by the souls of the men, nor by dæmons of earth or middle air, but<br>by a blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent down by the invocation of the<br>guardian saint.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `I fear thee, ancient Mariner !'<br> Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest !<br> 'Twas not those souls that fled in pain,<br> Which to their corses came again,<br> But a troop of spirits blest :</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> For when it dawned--they dropped their arms,<br> And clustered round the mast ;<br> Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,<br> And from their bodies passed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Around, around, flew each sweet sound,<br> Then darted to the Sun ;<br> Slowly the sounds came back again,<br> Now mixed, now one by one.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Sometimes a-dropping from the sky<br> I heard the sky-lark sing ;<br> Sometimes all little birds that are,<br> How they seemed to fill the sea and air<br> With their sweet jargoning !</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And now 'twas like all instruments,<br> Now like a lonely flute ;<br> And now it is an angel's song,<br> That makes the heavens be mute.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> It ceased ; yet still the sails made on<br> A pleasant noise till noon,<br> A noise like of a hidden brook<br> In the leafy month of June,<br> That to the sleeping woods all night<br> Singeth a quiet tune.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">[Additional stanzas, dropped after the first edition.]</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Till noon we quietly sailed on,<br> Yet never a breeze did breathe :<br> Slowly and smoothly went the ship,<br> Moved onward from beneath.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The lonesome Spirit from the south-pole carries on the ship as far as the<br>Line, in obedience to the angelic troop, but still requireth vengeance.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Under the keel nine fathom deep,<br> From the land of mist and snow,<br> The spirit slid : and it was he<br> That made the ship to go.<br> The sails at noon left off their tune,<br> And the ship stood still also.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Sun, right up above the mast,<br> Had fixed her to the ocean :<br> But in a minute she 'gan stir,<br> With a short uneasy motion--<br> Backwards and forwards half her length<br> With a short uneasy motion.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Then like a pawing horse let go,<br> She made a sudden bound :<br> It flung the blood into my head,<br> And I fell down in a swound.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Polar Spirit's fellow-dæmons, the invisible inhabitants of the element,<br>take part in his wrong ; and two of them relate, one to the other, that<br>penance long and heavy for the ancient Mariner hath been accorded to the<br>Polar Spirit, who returneth southward.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> How long in that same fit I lay,<br> I have not to declare ;<br> But ere my living life returned,<br> I heard and in my soul discerned<br> Two voices in the air.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `Is it he ?' quoth one, `Is this the man ?<br> By him who died on cross,<br> With his cruel bow he laid full low<br> The harmless Albatross.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The spirit who bideth by himself<br> In the land of mist and snow,<br> He loved the bird that loved the man<br> Who shot him with his bow.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The other was a softer voice,<br> As soft as honey-dew :<br> Quoth he, `The man hath penance done,<br> And penance more will do.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">PART VI</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> FIRST VOICE</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `But tell me, tell me ! speak again,<br> Thy soft response renewing--<br> What makes that ship drive on so fast ?<br> What is the ocean doing ?'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> SECOND VOICE</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `Still as a slave before his lord,<br> The ocean hath no blast ;<br> His great bright eye most silently<br> Up to the Moon is cast--</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> If he may know which way to go ;<br> For she guides him smooth or grim.<br> See, brother, see ! how graciously<br> She looketh down on him.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Mariner hath been cast into a trance ; for the angelic power causeth<br>the vessel to drive northward faster than human life could endure.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> FIRST VOICE</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `But why drives on that ship so fast,<br> Without or wave or wind ?'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> SECOND VOICE</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `The air is cut away before,<br> And closes from behind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Fly, brother, fly ! more high, more high !<br> Or we shall be belated :<br> For slow and slow that ship will go,<br> When the Mariner's trance is abated.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The supernatural motion is retarded ; the Mariner awakes, and his penance<br>begins anew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I woke, and we were sailing on<br> As in a gentle weather :<br> 'Twas night, calm night, the moon was high ;<br> The dead men stood together.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> All stood together on the deck,<br> For a charnel-dungeon fitter :<br> All fixed on me their stony eyes,<br> That in the Moon did glitter.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The pang, the curse, with which they died,<br> Had never passed away :<br> I could not draw my eyes from theirs,<br> Nor turn them up to pray.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The curse is finally expiated.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And now this spell was snapt : once more<br> I viewed the ocean green,<br> And looked far forth, yet little saw<br> Of what had else been seen--</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Like one, that on a lonesome road<br> Doth walk in fear and dread,<br> And having once turned round walks on,<br> And turns no more his head ;<br> Because he knows, a frightful fiend<br> Doth close behind him tread.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> But soon there breathed a wind on me,<br> Nor sound nor motion made :<br> Its path was not upon the sea,<br> In ripple or in shade.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek<br> Like a meadow-gale of spring--<br> It mingled strangely with my fears,<br> Yet it felt like a welcoming.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship,<br> Yet she sailed softly too :<br> Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze--<br> On me alone it blew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the ancient Mariner beholdeth his native country.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Oh ! dream of joy ! is this indeed<br> The light-house top I see ?<br> Is this the hill ? is this the kirk ?<br> Is this mine own countree ?</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> We drifted o'er the harbour-bar,<br> And I with sobs did pray--<br> O let me be awake, my God !<br> Or let me sleep alway.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The harbour-bay was clear as glass,<br> So smoothly it was strewn !<br> And on the bay the moonlight lay,<br> And the shadow of the Moon.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">[Additional stanzas, dropped after the first edition.]</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The rock shone bright, the kirk no less,<br> That stands above the rock :<br> The moonlight steeped in silentness<br> The steady weathercock.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The angelic spirits leave the dead bodies,</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And the bay was white with silent light,<br> Till rising from the same,<br> Full many shapes, that shadows were,<br> In crimson colours came.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And appear in their own forms of light.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> A little distance from the prow<br> Those crimson shadows were :<br> I turned my eyes upon the deck--<br> Oh, Christ ! what saw I there !</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,<br> And, by the holy rood !<br> A man all light, a seraph-man,<br> On every corse there stood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> This seraph-band, each waved his hand :<br> It was a heavenly sight !<br> They stood as signals to the land,<br> Each one a lovely light ;</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> This seraph-band, each waved his hand,<br> No voice did they impart--<br> No voice ; but oh ! the silence sank<br> Like music on my heart.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> But soon I heard the dash of oars,<br> I heard the Pilot's cheer ;<br> My head was turned perforce away<br> And I saw a boat appear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">[Additional stanza, dropped after the first edition.]</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Pilot and the Pilot's boy,<br> I heard them coming fast :<br> Dear Lord in Heaven ! it was a joy<br> The dead men could not blast.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I saw a third--I heard his voice :<br> It is the Hermit good !<br> He singeth loud his godly hymns<br> That he makes in the wood.<br> He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away<br> The Albatross's blood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">PART VII</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Hermit of the Wood,</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> This Hermit good lives in that wood<br> Which slopes down to the sea.<br> How loudly his sweet voice he rears !<br> He loves to talk with marineres<br> That come from a far countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve--<br> He hath a cushion plump :<br> It is the moss that wholly hides<br> The rotted old oak-stump.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The skiff-boat neared : I heard them talk,<br> `Why, this is strange, I trow !<br> Where are those lights so many and fair,<br> That signal made but now ?'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Approacheth the ship with wonder.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `Strange, by my faith !' the Hermit said--<br> `And they answered not our cheer !<br> The planks looked warped ! and see those sails,<br> How thin they are and sere !<br> I never saw aught like to them,<br> Unless perchance it were</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Brown skeletons of leaves that lag<br> My forest-brook along ;<br> When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow,<br> And the owlet whoops to the wolf below,<br> That eats the she-wolf's young.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `Dear Lord ! it hath a fiendish look--<br> (The Pilot made reply)<br> I am a-feared'--`Push on, push on !'<br> Said the Hermit cheerily.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The boat came closer to the ship,<br> But I nor spake nor stirred ;<br> The boat came close beneath the ship,<br> And straight a sound was heard.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ship suddenly sinketh.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Under the water it rumbled on,<br> Still louder and more dread :<br> It reached the ship, it split the bay ;<br> The ship went down like lead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ancient Mariner is saved in the Pilot's boat.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Stunned by that loud and dreadful sound,<br> Which sky and ocean smote,<br> Like one that hath been seven days drowned<br> My body lay afloat ;<br> But swift as dreams, myself I found<br> Within the Pilot's boat.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Upon the whirl, where sank the ship,<br> The boat spun round and round ;<br> And all was still, save that the hill<br> Was telling of the sound.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I moved my lips--the Pilot shrieked<br> And fell down in a fit ;<br> The holy Hermit raised his eyes,<br> And prayed where he did sit.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I took the oars : the Pilot's boy,<br> Who now doth crazy go,<br> Laughed loud and long, and all the while<br> His eyes went to and fro.<br> `Ha ! ha !' quoth he, `full plain I see,<br> The Devil knows how to row.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> And now, all in my own countree,<br> I stood on the firm land !<br> The Hermit stepped forth from the boat,<br> And scarcely he could stand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The ancient Mariner earnestly entreateth the Hermit to shrieve him ; and<br>the penance of life falls on him.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> `O shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man !'<br> The Hermit crossed his brow.<br> `Say quick,' quoth he, `I bid thee say--<br> What manner of man art thou ?'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched<br> With a woful agony,<br> Which forced me to begin my tale ;<br> And then it left me free.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And ever and anon through out his future life an agony constraineth him to<br>travel from land to land ;</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Since then, at an uncertain hour,<br> That agony returns :<br> And till my ghastly tale is told,<br> This heart within me burns.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> I pass, like night, from land to land ;<br> I have strange power of speech ;<br> That moment that his face I see,<br> I know the man that must hear me :<br> To him my tale I teach.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> What loud uproar bursts from that door !<br> The wedding-guests are there :<br> But in the garden-bower the bride<br> And bride-maids singing are :<br> And hark the little vesper bell,<br> Which biddeth me to prayer !</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> O Wedding-Guest ! this soul hath been<br> Alone on a wide wide sea :<br> So lonely 'twas, that God himself<br> Scarce seeméd there to be.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> O sweeter than the marriage-feast,<br> 'Tis sweeter far to me,<br> To walk together to the kirk<br> With a goodly company !--</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> To walk together to the kirk,<br> And all together pray,<br> While each to his great Father bends,<br> Old men, and babes, and loving friends<br> And youths and maidens gay !</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And to teach, by his own example, love and reverence to all things that God<br>made and loveth.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Farewell, farewell ! but this I tell<br> To thee, thou Wedding-Guest !<br> He prayeth well, who loveth well<br> Both man and bird and beast.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> He prayeth best, who loveth best<br> All things both great and small ;<br> For the dear God who loveth us,<br> He made and loveth all.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> The Mariner, whose eye is bright,<br> Whose beard with age is hoar,<br> Is gone : and now the Wedding-Guest<br> Turned from the bridegroom's door.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> He went like one that hath been stunned,<br> And is of sense forlorn :<br> A sadder and a wiser man,<br> He rose the morrow morn.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Samuel+Taylor+Coleridge">Samuel Taylor Coleridge</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=512871" data-title="The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner de Samuel Taylor Coleridge" data-description="IN SEVEN PARTS

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 ? quae loca
habitant ? Ha..."></div>
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