Frontispice
« By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stop’s thou me ? »
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone.
He cannot cause but hear.
The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she.
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.
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around.
It ate the food it ne’er had eat.
……… With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross.
And I had done a hellish thing,
And I would work ’em woe.
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night.
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow
A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist !
And still it neared and neared.
« The game is done ! I’ve won. i’ve won ! »
Quoth she, and whistles thrice.
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,
And cursed me with his eye.
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.
I looked upon the rotting sea
And drew my eyes away; …
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.
The moving moon went up the sky.
Beyong the shadow of the ship,
I watched the water-snakes.
I heard, and in my soul discerned
Two voices in the air.
The groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes.
It ceased; yet still the sails made on
A pleasant noise till noon.
It flung the blood into my head,
And I fell down in a swound.
And the rain poured down from one black cloud.
But why drives on that ship so fast,
Without or wave or wind ?
And on the bay the moonlight lay,
And the shadow of the Moon.
Full many shapes, that shadows were.
In crimson colors came.
The seraph-band each waved his hand.
It was a heavenly sight !
Under the water it rumbled on,
Still louder and more dread.
Upon the whirl, where sank the ship,
The boat spun round and round.
I moved my lips – the Pilot shrieked
And fell down in a fit,.
« Oh shrieve me, sshrieve me, holy man ! »
I pass, like night, from land to land,
I have strange power of speech.
That moment that his face I see,
I know the man that must hear me.
What loud uproar bursts from that door !
The wedding-guests are there.
So lonely ’twas, that God himself
Scarce seemed there to be.
The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone.