Within the shadow of the ship Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, Was a flash of golden fire. Their beauty O happy living things! no tongue and their happiness. Their beauty might declare: A spring of love gushed from my heart, He blesseth And I blessed them unaware? them in his heart. Sure my kind saint took pity on me, And I blessed them unaware. The spell be- The self same moment I could pray; gins to break. And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea. THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. PART THE FIFTH. OH SLEEP! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole ! To Mary Queen the praise be given! That slid into my soul. The silly buckets on the deck, I dreamt that they were filled with dew; My lips were wet, my throat was cold, Sure I had drunken in my dreams, By grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain. He heareth sounds, and I moved, and could not feel my limbs : I thought that I had died in sleep, And was a blessed ghost. And soon I heard a roaring wind: seeth strange It did not come anear; sights and commotions in But with its sound it shook the sails, the sky and the element. That were so thin and sere. The upper air burst into life ! 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; 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 loud wind never reached the ship, They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, The helmsman steered, the ship moved on ; 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. The body of my brother's son Stood by me, knee to knee : The body and I pulled at one rope, The bodies of the ship's crew are inspired, and the ship moves on; 24 But not by the souls of the " I fear thee, ancient Mariner!" by daemons of Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest! earth mid-'Twas not those souls that fled in pain, dle air, but by a blessed troop of ange- Which to their corses came again, lic spirits, sent down by the But a troop of spirits blest : invocation of the guardian saint. For when it dawned-they dropped their arms, Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths, And from their bodies passed. Around, around, flew each sweet sound, Slowly the sounds came back again, Sometimes a-dropping from the sky And now 'twas like all instruments, And now it is an angel's song, That makes the Heavens be mute. |