Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1772-1834

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

IN SEVEN PARTS

(From the Lyrical Ballads, 1798)
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

An ancient Ma- It is an ancient Mariner,

riner meeteth

three Gallants

bidden to a wedding-feast, and

detaineth one.

The Wedding

And he stoppeth one of three,

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

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

The guests are met, the feast is set:

May'st hear the merry din.'

He holds him with his skinny hand,

'There was a ship,' quoth he.

'Hold off! unhand me, gray-beard loon!' Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

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

bound by the

eye of the old

seafaring man, And listens like a three years' child: and constrained

to bear his tale. The Mariner hath his will.

The Wedding

Guest

heareth

the bridal music; but the

Mariner con

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyes Mariner.

'The ship was

cleared,

cheered, the harbour

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

tinueth his tale. The merry minstrelsy.

The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole.

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 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.

Till a great sea-
bird, called the
Albatross, came
through the
snow-fog, and
was received

with great joy
and hospitality.

And lo! the Albatross proveth a bird of good

omen, and fol. loweth the ship

as it returned northward

through fog and floating ice.

through the drifts

clifts

Did send a dismal sheen:

the snowy

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

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:

It cracked and growled, and roared and
howled,

Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;

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!

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;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke
white,

Glimmered the white moon-shine.'

The ancient Ma-God save thee, ancient Mariner!

riner inhospita

bly killeth the

pious bird of

good omen.

But when the

From the fiends, that plague thee thus!

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

bow

I shot the Albatross.

PART II.

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.

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.

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

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,

fog cleared off,
they justify the The glorious Sun uprist:

same, and thus make themselves accomplices in the crime.

Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

continues; the

ship enters the
Pacific Ocean,
and sails north-

ward, even tillit

reaches the line.

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,

'Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

All in a hot and copper sky,

The bloody Sun, at noon,

Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!

That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.