Argument

How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.

PART I 1 It is an ancient Mariner,

2 And he stoppeth one of three.

3 'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,

4 Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

5 The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,

6 And I am next of kin;

7 The guests are met, the feast is set:

8 May'st hear the merry din.'

9 He holds him with his skinny hand,

10 'There was a ship,' quoth he.

11 'Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!'

12 Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

14 The Wedding-Guest stood still,

15 And listens like a three years' child:

16 The Mariner hath his will.

17 The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:

18 He cannot choose but hear;

19 And thus spake on that ancient man,

20 The bright-eyed Mariner.

21 'The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

22 Merrily did we drop

24 Below the lighthouse top.

25 The Sun came up upon the left,

26 Out of the sea came he!

27 And he shone bright, and on the right

28 Went down into the sea.

29 Higher and higher every day,

30 Till over the mast at noon--'

31 The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,

32 For he heard the loud bassoon.

34 Red as a rose is she;

35 Nodding their heads before her goes

36 The merry minstrelsy.

37 The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,

38 Yet he cannot choose but hear;

39 And thus spake on that ancient man,

40 The bright-eyed Mariner.

42 Was tyrannous and strong:

43 He struck with his o'ertaking wings,

44 And chased us south along.

45 With sloping masts and dipping prow,

46 As who pursued with yell and blow

47 Still treads the shadow of his foe,

48 And forward bends his head,

49 The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,

50 And southward aye we fled.

51 And now there came both mist and snow,

52 And it grew wondrous cold:

53 And ice, mast-high, came floating by,

54 As green as emerald.

55 And through the drifts the snowy clifts

56 Did send a dismal sheen:

57 Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--

58 The ice was all between.

59 The ice was here, the ice was there,

60 The ice was all around:

61 It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,

62 Like noises in a swound!

64 Thorough the fog it came;

65 As if it had been a Christian soul,

66 We hailed it in God's name.

67 It ate the food it ne'er had eat,

68 And round and round it flew.

69 The ice did split with a thunder-fit;

70 The helmsman steered us through!

72 The Albatross did follow,

73 And every day, for food or play,

74 Came to the mariner's hollo!

75 In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,

76 It perched for vespers nine;

77 Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,

78 Glimmered the white Moon-shine.'

80 From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--

81 Why look'st thou so?'--With my cross-bow

82 I shot the ALBATROSS.

PART II 83 The Sun now rose upon the right:

84 Out of the sea came he,

85 Still hid in mist, and on the left

86 Went down into the sea.

87 And the good south wind still blew behind,

88 But no sweet bird did follow,

89 Nor any day for food or play

90 Came to the mariner's hollo!

92 And it would work 'em woe:

93 For all averred, I had killed the bird

94 That made the breeze to blow.

95 Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,

96 That made the breeze to blow!

98 The glorious Sun uprist:

99 Then all averred, I had killed the bird

100 That brought the fog and mist.

101 'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,

102 That bring the fog and mist.

104 The furrow followed free;

105 We were the first that ever burst

106 Into that silent sea.

108 'Twas sad as sad could be;

109 And we did speak only to break

110 The silence of the sea!

111 All in a hot and copper sky,

112 The bloody Sun, at noon,

113 Right up above the mast did stand,

114 No bigger than the Moon.

115 Day after day, day after day,

116 We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

117 As idle as a painted ship

118 Upon a painted ocean.

120 And all the boards did shrink;

121 Water, water, every where,

122 Nor any drop to drink.

123 The very deep did rot: O Christ!

124 That ever this should be!

125 Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

126 Upon the slimy sea.

127 About, about, in reel and rout

128 The death-fires danced at night;

129 The water, like a witch's oils,

130 Burnt green, and blue and white.

131 And some in dreams assurèd were

132 Of the Spirit that plagued us so;

133 Nine fathom deep he had followed us

134 From the land of mist and snow.

135 And every tongue, through utter drought,

136 Was withered at the root;

137 We could not speak, no more than if

138 We had been choked with soot.

140 Had I from old and young!

141 Instead of the cross, the Albatross

142 About my neck was hung.

PART III 143 There passed a weary time. Each throat

144 Was parched, and glazed each eye.

145 A weary time! a weary time!

146 How glazed each weary eye,

148 A something in the sky.

149 At first it seemed a little speck,

150 And then it seemed a mist;

151 It moved and moved, and took at last

152 A certain shape, I wist.

153 A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!

154 And still it neared and neared:

155 As if it dodged a water-sprite,

156 It plunged and tacked and veered.

158 We could nor laugh nor wail;

159 Through utter drought all dumb we stood!

160 I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,

161 And cried, A sail! a sail!

163 Agape they heard me call:

164 Gramercy! they for joy did grin,

165 And all at once their breath drew in.

166 As they were drinking all.

168 Hither to work us weal;

169 Without a breeze, without a tide,

170 She steadies with upright keel!

171 The western wave was all a-flame.

172 The day was well nigh done!

173 Almost upon the western wave

174 Rested the broad bright Sun;

175 When that strange shape drove suddenly

176 Betwixt us and the Sun.

178 (Heaven's Mother send us grace!)

179 As if through a dungeon-grate he peered

180 With broad and burning face.

181 Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)

182 How fast she nears and nears!

184 Like restless gossameres?

185 Are those her ribs through which the Sun

186 Did peer, as through a grate?

187 And is that Woman all her crew?

188 Is that a DEATH? and are there two?

189 Is DEATH that woman's mate?

191 Her locks were yellow as gold:

192 Her skin was as white as leprosy,

193 The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,

194 Who thicks man's blood with cold.

196 And the twain were casting dice;

197 'The game is done! I've won! I've won!'

198 Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

199 The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out;

200 At one stride comes the dark;

201 With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea,

202 Off shot the spectre-bark.

204 Fear at my heart, as at a cup,

205 My life-blood seemed to sip!

206 The stars were dim, and thick the night,

207 The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white;

208 From the sails the dew did drip--

209 Till clomb above the eastern bar

210 The hornèd Moon, with one bright star

211 Within the nether tip.

213 Too quick for groan or sigh,

214 Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,

215 And cursed me with his eye.

217 (And I heard nor sigh nor groan)

218 With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,

219 They dropped down one by one.

221 They fled to bliss or woe!

222 And every soul, it passed me by,

223 Like the whizz of my cross-bow!

225 I fear thy skinny hand!

226 And thou art long, and lank, and brown,

227 As is the ribbed sea-sand.

228 I fear thee and thy glittering eye,

229 And thy skinny hand, so brown.'--

231 This body dropt not down.

232 Alone, alone, all, all alone,

233 Alone on a wide wide sea!

234 And never a saint took pity on

235 My soul in agony.

237 And they all dead did lie:

238 And a thousand thousand slimy things

239 Lived on; and so did I.

241 And drew my eyes away;

242 I looked upon the rotting deck,

243 And there the dead men lay.

244 I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;

245 But or ever a prayer had gusht,

246 A wicked whisper came, and made

247 My heart as dry as dust.

248 I closed my lids, and kept them close,

249 And the balls like pulses beat;

250 For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky

251 Lay dead like a load on my weary eye,

252 And the dead were at my feet.

254 Nor rot nor reek did they:

255 The look with which they looked on me

256 Had never passed away.

257 An orphan's curse would drag to hell

258 A spirit from on high;

259 But oh! more horrible than that

260 Is the curse in a dead man's eye!

261 Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,

262 And yet I could not die.

263 The moving Moon went up the sky,

265 Softly she was going up,

266 And a star or two beside--

267 Her beams bemocked the sultry main,

268 Like April hoar-frost spread;

269 But where the ship's huge shadow lay,

270 The charmèd water burnt alway

271 A still and awful red.

273 I watched the water-snakes:

274 They moved in tracks of shining white,

275 And when they reared, the elfish light

276 Fell off in hoary flakes.

277 Within the shadow of the ship

278 I watched their rich attire:

279 Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,

280 They coiled and swam; and every track

281 Was a flash of golden fire.

283 Their beauty might declare:

284 A spring of love gushed from my heart,

286 Sure my kind saint took pity on me,

287 And I blessed them unaware.

289 And from my neck so free

290 The Albatross fell off, and sank

291 Like lead into the sea.

PART V 292 Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing,

293 Beloved from pole to pole!

294 To Mary Queen the praise be given!

295 She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,

296 That slid into my soul.

298 That had so long remained,

299 I dreamt that they were filled with dew;

300 And when I awoke, it rained.

301 My lips were wet, my throat was cold,

302 My garments all were dank;

303 Sure I had drunken in my dreams,

304 And still my body drank.

305 I moved, and could not feel my limbs:

306 I was so light--almost

307 I thought that I had died in sleep,

308 And was a blessed ghost.

310 It did not come anear;

311 But with its sound it shook the sails,

312 That were so thin and sere.

313 The upper air burst into life!

315 To and fro they were hurried about!

316 And to and fro, and in and out,

317 The wan stars danced between.

318 And the coming wind did roar more loud,

319 And the sails did sigh like sedge,

320 And the rain poured down from one black cloud;

321 The Moon was at its edge.

322 The thick black cloud was cleft, and still

323 The Moon was at its side:

324 Like waters shot from some high crag,

325 The lightning fell with never a jag,

326 A river steep and wide.

328 Yet now the ship moved on!

329 Beneath the lightning and the Moon

330 The dead men gave a groan.

331 They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,

332 Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;

333 It had been strange, even in a dream,

334 To have seen those dead men rise.

335 The helmsman steered, the ship moved on;

336 Yet never a breeze up-blew;

337 The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,

338 Where they were wont to do;

339 They raised their limbs like lifeless tools--

340 We were a ghastly crew.

341 The body of my brother's son

342 Stood by me, knee to knee:

343 The body and I pulled at one rope,

344 But he said nought to me.

346 Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!

347 'Twas not those souls that fled in pain,

348 Which to their corses came again,

349 But a troop of spirits blest:

350 For when it dawned--they dropped their arms,

351 And clustered round the mast;

352 Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,

353 And from their bodies passed.

354 Around, around, flew each sweet sound,

355 Then darted to the Sun;

356 Slowly the sounds came back again,

357 Now mixed, now one by one.

358 Sometimes a-dropping from the sky

359 I heard the sky-lark sing;

360 Sometimes all little birds that are,

361 How they seemed to fill the sea and air

362 With their sweet jargoning!

363 And now 'twas like all instruments,

364 Now like a lonely flute;

365 And now it is an angel's song,

366 That makes the heavens be mute.

367 It ceased; yet still the sails made on

368 A pleasant noise till noon,

369 A noise like of a hidden brook

370 In the leafy month of June,

371 That to the sleeping woods all night

372 Singeth a quiet tune.

373 Till noon we quietly sailed on,

374 Yet never a breeze did breathe:

375 Slowly and smoothly went the ship,

376 Moved onward from beneath.

378 From the land of mist and snow,

379 The spirit slid: and it was he

380 That made the ship to go.

381 The sails at noon left off their tune,

382 And the ship stood still also.

383 The Sun, right up above the mast,

384 Had fixed her to the ocean:

385 But in a minute she 'gan stir,

386 With a short uneasy motion--

387 Backwards and forwards half her length

388 With a short uneasy motion.

389 Then like a pawing horse let go,

390 She made a sudden bound:

391 It flung the blood into my head,

392 And I fell down in a swound.

394 I have not to declare;

395 But ere my living life returned,

396 I heard and in my soul discerned

397 Two voices in the air.

398 'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the man?

399 By him who died on cross,

400 With his cruel bow he laid full low

401 The harmless Albatross.

402 The spirit who bideth by himself

403 In the land of mist and snow,

404 He loved the bird that loved the man

405 Who shot him with his bow.'

406 The other was a softer voice,

407 As soft as honey-dew:

408 Quoth he, 'The man hath penance done,

409 And penance more will do.'

PART VI FIRST VOICE

410 'But tell me, tell me! speak again,

411 Thy soft response renewing--

412 What makes that ship drive on so fast?

413 What is the ocean doing?'

SECOND VOICE

414 'Still as a slave before his lord,

415 The ocean hath no blast;

416 His great bright eye most silently

417 Up to the Moon is cast--

418 If he may know which way to go;

419 For she guides him smooth or grim.

420 See, brother, see! how graciously

421 She looketh down on him.'

FIRST VOICE

423 Without or wave or wind?'

SECOND VOICE

424 'The air is cut away before,

425 And closes from behind.

426 Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high!

427 Or we shall be belated:

428 For slow and slow that ship will go,

429 When the Mariner's trance is abated.'

431 As in a gentle weather:

432 'Twas night, calm night, the moon was high;

433 The dead men stood together.

434 All stood together on the deck,

435 For a charnel-dungeon fitter:

436 All fixed on me their stony eyes,

437 That in the Moon did glitter.

438 The pang, the curse, with which they died,

439 Had never passed away:

440 I could not draw my eyes from theirs,

441 Nor turn them up to pray.

443 I viewed the ocean green,

444 And looked far forth, yet little saw

445 Of what had else been seen--

446 Like one, that on a lonesome road

447 Doth walk in fear and dread,

448 And having once turned round walks on,

449 And turns no more his head;

450 Because he knows, a frightful fiend

451 Doth close behind him tread.

452 But soon there breathed a wind on me,

453 Nor sound nor motion made:

454 Its path was not upon the sea,

455 In ripple or in shade.

456 It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek

457 Like a meadow-gale of spring--

458 It mingled strangely with my fears,

459 Yet it felt like a welcoming.

460 Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship,

461 Yet she sailed softly too:

462 Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze--

463 On me alone it blew.

465 The light-house top I see?

466 Is this the hill? is this the kirk?

467 Is this mine own countree?

468 We drifted o'er the harbour-bar,

469 And I with sobs did pray--

470 O let me be awake, my God!

471 Or let me sleep alway.

472 The harbour-bay was clear as glass,

473 So smoothly it was strewn!

474 And on the bay the moonlight lay,

475 And the shadow of the Moon.

476 The rock shone bright, the kirk no less,

477 That stands above the rock:

478 The moonlight steeped in silentness

479 The steady weathercock.

480 And the bay was white with silent light,

481 Till rising from the same,

483 In crimson colours came.

484 A little distance from the prow

485 Those crimson shadows were:

486 I turned my eyes upon the deck--

487 Oh, Christ! what saw I there!

488 Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,

489 And, by the holy rood!

490 A man all light, a seraph-man,

491 On every corse there stood.

492 This seraph-band, each waved his hand:

493 It was a heavenly sight!

494 They stood as signals to the land,

495 Each one a lovely light;

496 This seraph-band, each waved his hand,

497 No voice did they impart--

498 No voice; but oh! the silence sank

499 Like music on my heart.

500 But soon I heard the dash of oars,

501 I heard the Pilot's cheer;

502 My head was turned perforce away

503 And I saw a boat appear.

504 The Pilot and the Pilot's boy,

505 I heard them coming fast:

506 Dear Lord in Heaven! it was a joy

507 The dead men could not blast.

508 I saw a third--I heard his voice:

509 It is the Hermit good!

510 He singeth loud his godly hymns

511 That he makes in the wood.

512 He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away

513 The Albatross's blood.

PART VII 514 This Hermit good lives in that wood

515 Which slopes down to the sea.

516 How loudly his sweet voice he rears!

517 He loves to talk with marineres

518 That come from a far countree.

519 He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve--

520 He hath a cushion plump:

521 It is the moss that wholly hides

522 The rotted old oak-stump.

523 The skiff-boat neared: I heard them talk,

524 'Why, this is strange, I trow!

525 Where are those lights so many and fair,

526 That signal made but now?'

528 'And they answered not our cheer!

529 The planks looked warped! and see those sails,

530 How thin they are and sere!

531 I never saw aught like to them,

532 Unless perchance it were

533 Brown skeletons of leaves that lag

534 My forest-brook along;

536 And the owlet whoops to the wolf below,

537 That eats the she-wolf's young.'

538 'Dear Lord! it hath a fiendish look--

539 (The Pilot made reply)

540 I am a-feared'--'Push on, push on!'

541 Said the Hermit cheerily.

542 The boat came closer to the ship,

543 But I nor spake nor stirred;

544 The boat came close beneath the ship,

545 And straight a sound was heard.

547 Still louder and more dread:

548 It reached the ship, it split the bay;

549 The ship went down like lead.

551 Which sky and ocean smote,

552 Like one that hath been seven days drowned

553 My body lay afloat;

554 But swift as dreams, myself I found

555 Within the Pilot's boat.

556 Upon the whirl, where sank the ship,

557 The boat spun round and round;

558 And all was still, save that the hill

559 Was telling of the sound.

560 I moved my lips--the Pilot shrieked

561 And fell down in a fit;

562 The holy Hermit raised his eyes,

563 And prayed where he did sit.

564 I took the oars: the Pilot's boy,

565 Who now doth crazy go,

566 Laughed loud and long, and all the while

567 His eyes went to and fro.

568 'Ha! ha!' quoth he, 'full plain I see,

569 The Devil knows how to row.'

570 And now, all in my own countree,

571 I stood on the firm land!

572 The Hermit stepped forth from the boat,

573 And scarcely he could stand.

575 The Hermit crossed his brow.

576 'Say quick,' quoth he, 'I bid thee say--

577 What manner of man art thou?'

578 Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched

579 With a woful agony,

580 Which forced me to begin my tale;

581 And then it left me free.

583 That agony returns:

584 And till my ghastly tale is told,

585 This heart within me burns.

586 I pass, like night, from land to land;

587 I have strange power of speech;

588 That moment that his face I see,

589 I know the man that must hear me:

590 To him my tale I teach.

591 What loud uproar bursts from that door!

592 The wedding-guests are there:

593 But in the garden-bower the bride

594 And bride-maids singing are:

595 And hark the little vesper bell,

596 Which biddeth me to prayer!

597 O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been

598 Alone on a wide wide sea:

599 So lonely 'twas, that God himself

600 Scarce seemed there to be.

601 O sweeter than the marriage-feast,

602 'Tis sweeter far to me,

603 To walk together to the kirk

604 With a goodly company!--

605 To walk together to the kirk,

606 And all together pray,

607 While each to his great Father bends,

608 Old men, and babes, and loving friends

609 And youths and maidens gay!

611 To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!

612 He prayeth well, who loveth well

613 Both man and bird and beast.

614 He prayeth best, who loveth best

615 All things both great and small;

616 For the dear God who loveth us,

617 He made and loveth all.

618 The Mariner, whose eye is bright,

619 Whose beard with age is hoar,

620 Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest

621 Turned from the bridegroom's door.

622 He went like one that hath been stunned,

623 And is of sense forlorn:

624 A sadder and a wiser man,