And the an- Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed

cient Mariner

beholdeth his The light-house top I see?

native

country.

Is this the hill? is this the kirk ?

Is this mine own countree ?

We drifted o'er the harbour-bar,
And I with sobs did pray-
O let me be awake, my God!
Or let me sleep alway.

The harbour-bay was clear as glass,
So smoothly it was strewn!

And on the bay the moonlight lay,

And the shadow of the moon.

The rock shone bright, the kirk no less,

That stands above the rock:

The moonlight steeped in silentness

The steady weathercock.

And the bay was white with silent light,

Till rising from the same,

The angelic Full many shapes, that shadows were,

A little distance from the prow
Those crimson shadows were :
I turned my eyes upon the deck-
Oh, Christ! what saw I there!

Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,
And, by the holy rood!

A man all light, a seraph-man,
On every corse there stood.

This seraph-band, each waved his hand:

It was a heavenly sight!

They stood as signals to the land,

Each one a lovely light :

This seraph-band, each waved his hand,

No voice did they impart

No voice; but oh! the silence sank

Like music on my heart.

But soon I heard the dash of oars,
I heard the Pilot's cheer;

My head was turned perforce away,
And I saw a boat appear.

And appear in their own forms of light.

The Pilot, and the Pilot's boy,
I heard them coming fast:
Dear Lord in Heaven! it was a joy
The dead men could not blast.

I saw a third-I heard his voice :
It is the Hermit good!
He singeth loud his godly hymns
That he makes in the wood.

He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away
The Albatross's blood.

THE ANCIENT MARINER.

PART THE SEVENTH.

THIS Hermit good lives in that wood
Which slopes down to the sea.
How loudly his sweet voice he rears!
He loves to talk with marineres
That come from a far countree.

He kneels at morn, and noon and eve—

He hath a cushion plump :
It is the moss that wholly hides

The rotted old oak-stump.

The skiff-boat neared: I heard them talk,
"Why this is strange, I trow!
Where are those lights so many and fair,

That signal made but now?"

VOL. II.

D

The Hermit of the Wood,

Approacheth " Strange, by my faith!" the Hermit said

the ship with wonder.

" And they answered not our cheer!

The planks looked warped! and see those sails,

How thin they are and sere!

I never saw aught like to them,
Unless perchance it were

Brown skeletons of leaves that lag
My forest-brook along;

When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow,
And the owlet whoops to the wolf below,
That eats the she-wolf's young."

"Dear Lord! it hath a fiendish look-
(The Pilot made reply)

I am a-feared"-" Push on, push on!"
Said the hermit cheerily.

The boat came closer to the ship,
But I nor spake nor stirred;

The boat came close beneath the ship,

And straight a sound was heard.

The ship snd. Under the water it rumbled on,
denly sinketh. Still louder and more dread:

It reached the ship, it split the bay;
The ship went down like lead.