Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select Poems Part 5

"I Fear thee, ancient Mariner!

I fear thy skinny hand! 225 And thou art long, and lank, and brown, As is the ribbed sea-sand.

I fear thee and thy glittering eye, And thy skinny hand, so brown."-- "Fear me not, fear not, thou wedding-guest! 230 This body dropt not down.

[Sidenote: But the ancient Mariner a.s.sureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance.]

Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on the wide, wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony. 235

[Sidenote: He despiseth the creatures of the calm.]

The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I.

[Sidenote: And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.]

I looked upon the rotting sea, 240 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, 245 A wicked whisper came, and made My heart as dry as dust.

I closed my lids, and kept them close, And the b.a.l.l.s like pulses beat; For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky 250 Lay like a load on my weary eye, And the dead were at my feet.

[Sidenote: But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men.]

The cold sweat melted from their limbs, Nor rot nor reek did they: The look with which they looked on me Had never pa.s.sed away.

An orphan's curse would drag to h.e.l.l A spirit from on high; But oh! more horrible than that Is a curse in a dead man's eye!

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, And yet I could not die.

[Sidenote: In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying Moon, and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward; and every where the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest, and their native country and their own natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords that are certainly expected and yet there is a silent joy at their arrival.]

The moving Moon went up the sky, And nowhere did abide: Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside--

Her beams bemocked the sultry main, Like April h.o.a.r-frost spread; But where the ship's huge shadow lay, The charmed water burnt alway A still and awful red.

[Sidenote: By the light of the Moon he beholdeth G.o.d's creatures of the great calm.]

Beyond the shadow of the ship, I watched the water-snakes: They moved in tracks of shining white, And when they reared, the elfish light Fell off in h.o.a.ry flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship I watched their rich attire: Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, They coiled and swam; and every track 280 Was a flash of golden fire.

[Sidenote: Their beauty and their happiness.]

[Sidenote: He blesseth them in his heart.]

O happy living things! no tongue Their beauty might declare: A spring of love gushed from my heart, And I blessed them unaware: 285 Sure my kind saint took pity on me, And I blessed them unaware.

[Sidenote: The spell begins to break.]

The selfsame moment I could pray; And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank 290 Like lead into the sea.

PART V

Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole!

To Mary Queen the praise be given!

She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, 295 That slid into my soul.

[Sidenote: By grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.]

The silly buckets on the deck, That had so long remained, I dreamt that they were filled with dew; And when I awoke, it rained. 300

My lips were wet, my throat was cold, My garments all were dank; Sure I had drunken in my dreams, And still my body drank.

I moved, and could not feel my limbs: 305 I was so light--almost I thought that I had died in sleep, And was a blessed ghost.

[Sidenote: He heareth sounds and seeth strange sights and commotions in the sky and the element.]

And soon I heard a roaring wind: It did not come anear; 310 But with its sound it shook the sails, That were so thin and sere.

The upper air burst into life!

And a hundred fire-flags sheen, To and fro they were hurried about! 315 And to and fro, and in and out, The wan stars danced between.

And the coming wind did roar more loud, And the sails did sigh like sedge; And the rain poured down from one black cloud; 320 The Moon was at its edge.

The thick black cloud was cleft, and still The Moon was at its side.

Like waters shot from some high crag, The lightning fell with never a jag, 325 A river steep and wide.

[Sidenote: The bodies of the ship's crew are inspired, and the ship moves on;]

The loud wind never reached the ship, Yet now the ship moved on!

Beneath the lightning and the Moon The dead men gave a groan. 330

They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, Nor spake, nor moved their eyes; It had been strange, even in a dream, To have seen those dead men rise.

The helmsman steered, the ship moved on; 335 Yet never a breeze up blew; The mariners all 'gan work the ropes, Where they were wont to do; They raised their limbs like lifeless tools-- We were a ghastly crew. 340

The body of my brother's son Stood by me, knee to knee: The body and I pulled at one rope, But he said nought to me."

[Sidenote: But not by the souls of the men, nor by daemons of earth or middle air, but by a blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent down by the invocation of the guardian saint.]

"I fear thee, ancient Mariner!" 345 "Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!

'T was not those souls that fled in pain, Which to their corses came again, But a troop of spirits blest:

For when it dawned--they dropped their arms, And cl.u.s.tered round the mast; 350 Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths, And from their bodies pa.s.sed.

Around, around, flew each sweet sound, Then darted to the Sun; 355 Slowly the sounds came back again, Now mixed, now one by one.