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, 265 And a star or two beside "Her beams bemocked the sultry main, Like April hoar-frost spread; And envieth that "I looked upon the rotting But where the ship's huge they should live, and so many be dead. shadow lay, In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying moon, and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward; and everywhere the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest, and their native counnatural as try and their own homes, which they enter unannounced, lords that are certainly expected; and yet there is a silent joy at their arrival. "Beyond the shadow of By the light of the the ship, I watched the water-snakes: They moved in tracks of shining white, And when they reared, the elfish light Fell off in hoary flakes. 275 "Within the shadow of the ship I watched their rich attire: Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, They coiled and swam; and every track Was a flash of golden fire. 280 moon he beholdeth God's creatures of the great calm. "O happy living things! Their beauty and no tongue Their beauty might declare: from my heart, their happiness. And I blessed them un- He blesseth them aware! 285 Sure my kind saint took pity on me, And I blessed them un aware. in his heart. "The selfsame moment I The spell begins tc could pray; And from my neck so free break. By grace of the Holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain. He heareth sounds and seeth strange sights and commotions in the sky and the element. The Albatross fell off, and "And the coming wind did But not by the 'Twas not those souls that Slowly and smoothly went souls of the men, nor by demons of fled in pain, earth or middle Which to their corses came air, but by a blessed troop of again, angelic spirits, sent down by the in- But a troop of spirits blest: Vocation of the guardian saint. that are, How they seemed to fill the sea and air With their sweet jargoning! "And now 'twas like all instruments, Now like a lonely flute; And now it is an angel's song, 365 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, 370 That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tune. "Till noon we quietly sailed on, Yet never a breeze did breathe: the ship, 375 |