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THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

PART I

An ancient Mar- It is an ancient Mariner,

iner meeteth three gallants bidden to a wedding feast, and detaineth one.

The Wedding Guest is spellbound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained

And he stoppeth one of three.

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By thy long gray beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

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The bridegroom's doors are opened wide, 5 And I am next of kin ;

The guests are met, the feast is set:

Mayst hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand,

"There was a ship," quoth he.

"Hold off! unhand me, graybeard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

He holds him with his glittering eye-
The Wedding Guest stood still,

And listens like a three-years' child:

to hear his tale. The Mariner hath his will.

The Wedding Guest sat on a stone:

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He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner :-

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"The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top.

"The Sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he!

And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The Wedding Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her, goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

"And now the storm blast came, and he

Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck us with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

"With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,

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:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

25 The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with

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The land of ice "And through the drifts, the snowy clifts 55

and of fearful

sounds, where

no living thing

was to be seen.

Till a great sea

bird, called the

Did send a dismal sheen :

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken —
The ice was all between.

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"The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around:

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It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!

"At length did cross an Albatross,

Albatross, came Thorough the fog it came ;

through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality.

And lo! the Al

batross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returned northward through fog and floating ice.

The ancient

Mariner inhospitably killeth

the bird of good

omen.

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

"It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew ;
The ice did split with a thunder fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

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"And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,

Came to the mariners' hollo!

"In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;

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Whiles all the night, through fog smoke white.
Glimmered the white moonshine."

"God save thee, ancient Mariner,

From the fiends that plague thee thus! - 80
Why look'st thou so?"-"With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross.

PART II

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"The Sun now rose upon the right;

Out of the sea came he,

Still hid in mist, and on the left

Went down into the sea.

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"And the good south wind still blew behind,

But no sweet bird did follow,

Nor any day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners' hollo!

"And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:

For all averred I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.

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'Ah, wretch!' said they, 'the bird to slay, 95 That made the breeze to blow!'

"Nor dim, nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious Sun uprist:

Then all averred I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.

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"Twas right,' said they, 'such birds to slay, That bring the fog and mist.'

"The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

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His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner for killing the bird of good luck.

But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves accomplices in the crime.

The fair breeze continues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails north

ward, even till it reaches the Line.

"Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, The ship hath

'Twas sad as sad could be ;

And we did speak only to break

been suddenly becalmed.

The silence of the sea!

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A spirit had followed them; one

of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither departed souls nor angels; concerning whom the learned Jew Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be

That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

[blocks in formation]

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consulted. They "And every tongue, through utter drought, 135 are very numer- Was withered at the root; ous, and there is

no climate or

element without

one or more.

We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.

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