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32. "And some in dreams assuréd were
Of the spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.

33. "And every tongue, through utter drought, Was withered at the root;

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

34. "Ah, welladay! What evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the albatross
About my neck was hung."

III. THE PROSPEROUS GALE AND THE RETURN.

35. "O sleep! it is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!

To Mary Queen the praise be given!
She sent the gentle sleep from heaven,
That slid into my soul.

36. "The silly buckets on the deck,
That had so long remained,

I dreamt that they were filled with dew;
And when I woke it rained.

37. "My lips were wet, my throat was cold,
My garments all were dank;

Sure I had drunken in my dreams,

And still my body drank.

38. "I moved, and could not feel my limbs
I was so light-almost

I thought that I had died in sleep,
And was a blesséd ghost.

39. And soon I heard a roaring wind;

It did not come anear,

But with its sound it shook the sails,
That were so thin and sear.

40. "The upper air burst into life!
And a hundred fire-flags sheen ;
To and fro they were hurried about,
And to and fro, and in and out,

The wan stars danced between.

41. "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.

42. "The thick black cloud was cleft, and still
The moon was at its side:

Like waters shot from some high crag,
The lightning fell with never a jag,
A river steep and wide.

43. "The helmsman steered, the ship moved on,
Yet never a breeze upblew;
The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,
Where they were wont to do.

44. "Sometimes a-dropping from the sky
I heard the skylark sing;

Sometimes all little birds that are,

How they seemed to fill the sea and air
With their sweet jargoning!

45. "And now 'twas like all instruments,
Now like a lonely flute,

And now it is an angel's song,

That makes the heavens be mute.

46. "It ceased; yet still the sails made on A pleasant noise till noon,

A noise like of a hidden brook

In the leafy month of June,
That to the sleeping woods all night
Singeth a quiet tune.

47. "Till noon we quietly sailed on,
Yet never a breeze did breathe:
Slowly and smoothly went the ship,
Moved onward from beneath.

48. "Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship,
Yet she sailed softly too:

Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze—
On me alone it blew.

49. "Oh, dream of joy! is this, indeed,
The lighthouse top I see?

Is this the hill? Is this the kirk?
Is this mine own countree?

50. "We drifted o'er the harbor bar,
And I with sobs did pray,
'Oh, let me be awake, my God!
Or let me sleep alway.""

IV. THE SHRIFT OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

51. "And now, all in my own countree,
I stood on the firm land!

The hermit stepped forth from the boat,
And scarcely he could stand.

6:6

52. O shrive me, shrive me, holy man!'
The hermit crossed his brow.

'Say quick,' quoth he, 'I bid thee say,
What manner of man art thou?'

53. "Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched With a woeful agony,

Which forced me to begin my tale,
And then it left me free.

54. "Since then, at an uncertain hour,
That agony returns;

And till my ghastly tale is told,
This heart within me burns.

55. "I pass, like night, from land to land;
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see,

I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tale I teach.

56. "What loud uproar bursts from that door!
The wedding guests are there;
But in the garden bower the bride

And bridesmaids singing are;
And hark! the little vesper bell

Which biddeth me to prayer.

57. "O wedding guest! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide, wide sea:

So lonely 'twas, that God himself
Scarce seeméd there to be.

58. "Oh, sweeter than the marriage feast, 'Tis sweeter far to me,

To walk together to the kirk
With a goodly company—

59. "To walk together to the kirk,
And all together pray,

While each to his great Father bends,
Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay!

60. "Farewell! farewell! But this I tell
To thee, thou wedding guest:
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

61. "He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."

62. The mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,

Is gone; and now the wedding guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door.

63. He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn;

A sadder and a wiser man

He rose the morrow morn.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. What is an albatross? What superstiti n regarding it among sailors? (See 23.) Does the sun ordinarily appear "bigger than the moon " to us? (27.) Of this remarkable poem less than one half is given here, omission being made of most of the middle part, viz.: thirty-two stanzas that follow No. 34 here given; two stanzas that follow No. 42; four stanzas that follow No. 43; twenty stanzas that follow No. 47; twenty-two stanzas that follow No. 50; in all, eighty stanzas are omitted,

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