Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,
High as the highest peak of Furness-fells,
Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:
In truth the prison, unto which we doom
Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me,

In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground; Pleased if some souls (for such there needs must be) Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, Should find brief solace there, as I have found.

II

SCORN not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frown'd,
Mindless of its just honours; with this key

Shakespeare unlock'd his heart; the melody
Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound;
A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound;
With it Camöens sooth'd an exile's grief;
The Sonnet glitter'd a gay myrtle leaf
Amid the cypress with which Dante crown'd
His visionary brow: a glow-worm lamp,

It cheer'd mild Spenser, call'd from Faery-land To struggle through dark ways; and, when a damp Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew Soul-animating strains-alas, too few!

414

WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES
[1762-1850]

DOVER CLIFFS

On these white cliffs, that calm above the flood
Uplift their shadowy heads, and at their feet
Scarce hear the surge that has for ages beat,
Sure many a lonely wanderer has stood;
And while the distant murmur met his ear,
And o'er the distant billows the still eve

Sailed slow, has thought of all his heart must leave

To-morrow; of the friends he loved most dear;
Of social scenes from which he wept to part.
But if, like me, he knew how fruitless all
The thoughts that would full fain the past recall;
Soon would he quell the risings of his heart,
And brave the wild winds and unhearing tide,
The world his country, and his God his guide.

415

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
[1772-1834]

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

IN SEVEN PARTS

ARGUMENT.-How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country. [1798.]

PART I

An ancient
Mariner

meeteth

Ir is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

three Gallants "By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

bidden to a

wedding-feast,
and detain-
eth one

"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!"

The Wedding. Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

Guest is spellbound by the

eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained to

hear his tale

He holds him with his glittering cye-
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.

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,

Out of the sea came he!

And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

"Higher and higher every day,
Till over the mast at noon-"

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.

66 And now the Storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'ertaking 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,

The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the line

The WeddingGuest heareth the bridal music; but the Mariner continueth his tale

The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole

The land of ice, and of fearful sounds

where no liv

ing thing was

to be seen

Till a great
sea-bird, called
the Albatross,

came through
the snow-fog,

and was received with great joy and hospitality

And lo! the
Albatross

proveth a bird

of good omen, and followeth

the ship as it returned northward through fog

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.

"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 mariners' hollo!

"In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,

and floating ice It perched for vespers nine;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine."

"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.

The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the

pious bird of good omen

PART II

The Sun now rose upon the right:

Out of the sea came he,

Still hid in mist, and on the left

Went down into the sea.

And the good south wind still blew behind,
But no sweet bird did follow,

Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariners' hollo!

And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:

For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.

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

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good luck

But when the
fog cleared off,
they justify
the same, and
thus make
themselves
accomplices
in the crime

The fair breeze
continues; the
ship enters the
Pacific Ocean,
and sails north-
ward, even
till it reaches

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, the Line

'Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

The ship hath been suddenly becalmed