THE ANCIENT MARINER.-S. T. COLERIDGE.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE was born in Devon in 1772, and was educated at Christ's Hospital and Cambridge University. He was a poet of high genius, but did not produce much. He was also an exquisite prose writer. He died in 1834.

IT is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

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

The Bridegroom's doors are open 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 glittering eye-
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 :

"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,

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,1
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 averred 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. . . . .

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

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 sign nor groan), With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropped down one by one.

The souls did from their bodies fly,—
They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it passed me by,
Like the whiz of my cross-bow!.

The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on, and so did I.

I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

I looked 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.....

The moving Moon went up the sky,
And nowhere did abide :

Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside.....