"Stunned by that loud and dreadful sound, Which sky and ocean smote, Like one that hath been seven days drown'd, My body lay afloat; But swift as dreams, myself I found 66 'Upon the whirl, where sank the ship The boat spun round and round; And all was still, save that the hill "I moved my lips-the pilot shriek'd, And fell down in a fit; The holy Hermit raised his eyes, And pray'd where he did sit. "I took the oars: the pilot's boy, Who now doth crazy go, Laugh'd loud and long, and all the while His eyes went to and fro. Ha ha!' quoth he, full plain I see, The Devil knows how to row.' "And now, all in my own countree, I stood on the firm land! The Hermit stepp'd forth from the boat, And scarcely he could stand. 666 'O, shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man!' The Hermit cross'd his brow. 'Say quick,' quoth he, ‘I bid thee say— What manner of man art thou?' "Forthwith this frame of mine was wrench'd With a woeful agony, Which forced me to begin my tale; And then it left me free. "Since then at an uncertain hour, That agony returns ; And till my ghastly tale is told, "I pass, like night, from land to land; I know the man that must hear me : "What loud uproar bursts from that door! The wedding-guests are there; But in the garden-bower the bride And bride-maids singing are; "O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been So lonely 'twas, that God Himself Scarce seemed there to be. "O sweeter than the marriage-feast, To walk together to the kirk "To walk together to the kirk, And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends, "Farewell, farewell! but this I tell "He prayeth best, who loveth best The Mariner, whose eye is bright, Is gone; and now the Wedding-Guest He went like one that hath been stunn'd, A sadder and a wiser man, S. T. COLERIDGE. THE Well A WELL there is in the west country, And behind doth an ash-tree grow, A traveller came to the Well of St Keyne, For from cock-crow he had been And there was not a cloud in the sky. He drank of the water so cool and clear, For thirsty and hot was he, And he sat down upon the bank Under the willow tree. There came a man from the house hard by At the Well to fill his pail ; On the Well-side he rested it, And he bade the Stranger hail. “Now art thou a bachelor, Stranger? " quoth he, "For an if thou hast a wife, The happiest draught thou hast drank this day That ever thou didst in thy life. "Or has thy good woman, if one thou hast, Ever here in Cornwall been? For an if she have, I'll venture my life She has drank of the Well of St Keyne." "I have left a good woman who never was here," The Stranger he made reply, "But that my draught should be better for that, I pray you answer me why.” "St Keyne," quoth the Cornish-man, "many a time Drank of this crystal Well, And before the Angel summon'd her, "If the husband of this gifted Well A happy man thenceforth is he, |