"One after one, by the star-dogg'd Moon, Too quick for groan or sigh,

Each turn'd his face with a ghastly pang,
And cursed me with his eye.

"Four times fifty living men,
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan,)
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropt down one by one.

"The souls did from their body fly,
They fled to bliss or woe!
And every soul, it pass'd me by,
Like the whizz of my cross-bow!"

PART IV

"I fear thee, ancient Mariner !

I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou art long, and lank, and brown,

As is the ribb'd sea-sand.

"I fear thee and thy glittering eye,

And thy skinny hand, so brown."

"Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest ! This body dropt not down.

"Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide, wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on

My soul in agony.

"The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things

Lived on; and so did I.

"I look'd upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I look'd upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

"I look'd to heaven, and tried to pray;

But or ever a prayer had gusht,

A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.

"I closed my lids, and kept them close,

And the balls like pulses beat;

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky

Lay like a load on my weary eye,

And the dead were at my feet.

"The cold sweat melted from their limbs,

Nor rot nor reek did they :

The look with which they look'd on me

Had never pass'd away.

"An orphan's curse would drag to hell

A spirit from on high;

But oh! more horrible than that

Is the curse in a dead man's eye!

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.

"The moving Moon went up the sky,

And nowhere did abide :

Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside

"Her beams bemock'd the sultry main,
Like April hoar-frost spread;

But where the ship's huge shadow lay,
The charmed water burnt alway
A still and awful red.

"Beyond the shadow of the ship,

I watch'd the water-snakes:

They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they rear'd, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

"Within the shadow of the ship

I watch'd their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coil'd and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.

"O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare :

A spring of love gush'd from my heart,
And I bless'd them unaware :

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I bless'd them unaware.

"The self-same moment I could pray;

And from my neck so free

The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea."

PART V

"Oh Sleep! it is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!

To Mary Queen the praise be given!
She sent the gentle sleep from heaven,
That slid into my soul.

"The silly buckets on the deck,

That had so long remain'd,

I dreamt that they were fill'd with dew;
And when I awoke, it rain'd.

"My lips were wet, my throat was cold,
My garments all were dank;

Sure I had drunken in my dreams,
And still my body drank.

"I moved, and could not feel my limbs :

I was so light - almost

I thought that I had died in sleep,
And was a blessèd ghost.

"And soon I heard a roaring wind:
It did not come anear;

But with its sound it shook the sails,
That were so thin and sere.

"The upper air burst into life!
And a hundred fire-flags sheen,

To and fro they were hurried about!
And to and fro, and in and out,

The wan stars danced between.

"And the coming wind did roar more loud,

And the sails did sigh like sedge;

And the rain pour'd 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 reach'd the ship,

Yet now the ship moved on!

Beneath the lightning and the Moon
The dead men gave a groan.

"They groan'd, they stirr'd, 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 steer'd, 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.

Stood by me, knee to knee:

The body and I pull'd at one rope,
But he said nought to me."

"I fear thee, ancient Mariner !"

"Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!

'T was not those souls that fled in pain, Which to their corses came again,

But a troop of spirits blest:

"For when it dawn'd they dropt their arms,

And cluster'd round the mast;

Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,

And from their bodies pass'd.

“Around, around, flew each sweet sound,

Then darted to the Sun;

Slowly the sounds came back again,

Now mix'd, now one by one.

"Sometimes a-dropping from the sky

I heard the sky-lark sing;

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,

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

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

"Under the keel nine fathom 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 fix'd 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 return'd,
I heard, and in my soul discern'd
Two voices in the air.