All in a hot and copper sky The bloody sun at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the moon. Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion, As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; The very deeps did rot: O Christ! About, about, in reel and rout The death-fires danced at night; The water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green, and blue, and white. And some in dreams assured were Of the spirit that plagued us so: Nine fathom deep he had followed us From the land of mist and snow. And every tongue through utter drought Was wither'd at the root; We could not speak no more than if We had been choked with soot. Ah well-a-day! what evil looks Instead of the cross the albatross PART III. "So pass'd a weary time; each throat At first it seemed a little speck, It moved and moved, and took at last A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! It plunged, and tacked, and veered. With throat unslaked, with black lips baked, Through utter drought all dumb we stood With throat unslaked, with black lips baked, Agape they heard me call! Gramercy! they for joy did grin, And all at once their breath drew in As they were drinking all. 'See! see!' I cried, 'she tacks no more! Hither to work us weal Without a breeze, without a tide She steddies with upright keel!' The western wave was all a flame, When that strange shape drove suddenly And straight the sun was flecked with bars Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud) Are those her sails that glance in the sun Are those her ribs, through which the sun His bones were black with many a crack, Jet-black and bare, save where with rust They were patched with purple and green. Her lips were red, her looks were free, The naked hulk alongside came, 1 'The game is done! I've won, I've won " A gust of wind sterte up behind And whistled through his bones; Thro' the hole of his eyes and the hole of his mouth With never a whisper in the sea While clombe above the eastern bar The horned moon, with one bright star One after one by the horned moon Each turned his face with a ghastly pang Four times fifty living men, They dropped down one by one. Their souls did from their bodies fly,- And every soul it passed me by, Like the whiz of my cross-bow." PART IV. "I fear thee, Ancient Mariner ! I fear thy skinny hand; And thou art long, and lank, and brown, I fear thee and thy glittering eye, Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on the wide, wide sea; And Christ would take no pity on The many men so beautiful, And they all dead did lie! I looked upon the rotting sea, I looked to Heaven, and tried to pray; I closed my lids and kept them close, Till 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 looked on me, Had never passed away. An orphan's curse would drag to Hell A spirit from on high: |