The Datafile PD-CD 3/PDCD_3.iso/pocketbk/utilsr/rime/RIME.WRD

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cFrom The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250 - 1918
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Part I
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one three.
'By thy long grey beard and  glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
(An ancient Mariner meeteth 3 gallants
 bidden to a wedding feast, and detaineth
 one.)
The Bridegroom's doors are open'd 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, grey-beard 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:
The Mariner hath his will.
(The Wedding-Guest is spell-bound by
the eye of the old seafaring man and
 constrained to hear his tale)
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stope:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
'The ship was cheer'd, the harbour clear'd,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirt, 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.
(The Mariner tells how the ship sailed south
with a good wind and fair weather, till it
 reached the Line)
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 heareth the bridal
music;  but the Mariner continueth his tale)
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.
(The ship driven by a storm towards the
South Pole)
With sloping mast 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 roar'd the blast,
And southward aye we fled.
And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondeous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
And through the drifts the snowy clifs
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken---
The ice was all between.
(The land of ice, and of fearful sounds,
where no living thing was to be seen.)
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd and  howl'd,
Like noises  in a swound!
At length did cross an Albatross,
Through the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hail'd it in God's name.
(Till a great sea-bird, called the Albatross,
came through the snow-fog, and was
received with joy and hospitality.)
It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did spil with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steer'd us through!
And a good south wing sprng up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners' hollo!
(And lo! the Albatross a bird of god omen,
and followeth the ship as it returned
northward through the fog and floating ice)
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perch'd for vespers nine;
While all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmer'd the white moonshine.'
'God save thee, ancient Mariner,
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--
Why look'st thou so?'-'With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross.
(The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth
the pious bird of good omen)
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 averr'd I had kill'd the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!
(His shipmates cry out against the ancient
Mariner for killing the bird of good luck.)
Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious Sun uprist:
Then all averr'd I had kill'd the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
'Twas right, said they, such bird to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.
(But when the fog cleared off, they justify
the same, and thus make themselves accomplices
in the crime.)
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow follow'd free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
(The fair breeze continues; the ship enters
the Pacific Ocean, and sails northward, even
till it reaches the Line)
Down drop the breeze, the sail dropt down,
'Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
(The ship, hath been suddenly becalmed.)
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.
(And the Albatross begins to be avenged.)
The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy thing did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.
About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires dance at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.
And some in dreams assured were
Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had follow'd us
From the land of mist and snow.
(A Spirit had follwed them one of the invisible
inhabitants of this planet, neither departed
souls nor angels; concerning whom the learned
Jew, Josephus, and the platonic Constinopolitan;
Micheal Psellus, may be consulted. They are
very numerous, and there is no climate or
element without one or more.)
And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was wither'd at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.
Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.
(The shipmates in their sore distress, would
fain throw the whole guilt on the ancient
Mariner in sign whereof they hang the dead
sea-bird round his neck.)
Part III
'There passes a weary time. Each throat
Was parch'd, and glazed each eye.
A weary time! a weary time!
How glazed each weary eye!
When, looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky.
(The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign
in the element afar off.)
At first it seem'd a little speck,
And then it seem'd a mist;
It moved and moved, and took at last
A certain shape, I wist.
A speck, a mist, I wist!
And still it near'd and near'd:
As if it dodged a water-sprite,
It plunged, and tack'd and veer'd.
With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
We could nor laugh nor wail;
Through utter drought all dumb we stood!
I bit my arm, I suck'd the blood,
And cried, A sail! a sail!
(At its nearer approach it seemeth him to be
a ship and at a dear ransom he freeth his
speech from the bonds of thirst.)
With throats unslaked, with black lips backed,
Agape they heard me call:
Grammercy! they for joy did grin,
And all at once their breath drew in,
As they were drinking all.
(A flash of joy;)
See! see! (I cried) she tack no more!
Hither to work us weal--
Without a breeze, without a tide,
She steadies with upright keel!
( And horror follows. For can it be a ship
that comes onward without wind or tide?)
The western wave was all aflame,
The day was wellnigh done!
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad, bright Sun;
When that strange shape drove suddenly
Betwixt us and the Sun.
And straight the Sun was fleck'd with bars
(Heaven's  Mother send us grace!),
As if through a dungeon-grate he peer'd
With broad and burning face.
(It seemeth him but the skeleton of a ship.)
Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)
How fast she nears and nears!