The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 71

[Sidenote: No twilight within the[195:1] courts of the Sun.]

The Sun's rim dips: the stars rush out: At one stride comes the dark; 200 With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea, Off shot the spectre-bark.

[Sidenote: At the rising of the Moon.]

We listened and looked sideways up!

Fear at my heart, as at a cup, My life-blood seemed to sip! 205 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 210 Within the nether tip.

[Sidenote: One after another,]

One after one, by the star-dogged Moon, Too quick for groan or sigh, Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, And cursed me with his eye. 215

[Sidenote: His shipmates drop down dead.]

Four times fifty living men, (And I heard nor sigh nor groan) With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropped down one by one.

[Sidenote: But Life-in-Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner.]

The souls did from their bodies fly,-- 220 They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it pa.s.sed me by, Like the whizz of my cross-bow!

PART IV

[Sidenote: The Wedding-Guest feareth that a Spirit is talking to him;]

'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.[196:1]

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

I fear thee and thy glittering eye, And thy skinny hand, so brown.'-- Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest! 230 This body dropt not down.

Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a 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 255 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 the curse in a dead man's eye! 260 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 no where did abide: Softly she was going up, 265 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 270 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 275 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 self-same 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.