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 Mariner meeteth three Gallants bidden to a wedding-feast and detaineth one.]
It is an ancient Mariner,
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, graybeard 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 sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
Merrily did we drop
[The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the Line.]
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 The merry minstrelsy.
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.
And through the drifts the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen:
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 lo! the Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returned northward through fog and floating ice.]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."
"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 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, The glorious Sun uprist:
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 blew, the white foam flew, 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.
[And the Albatross begins to be avenged.]
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.
[A Spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither departed souls nor angels; concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or element without one or more.]
And some in dreams assurèd were Of the Spirit that plagued us so; Nine fathom deep he had followed us From the land of mist and snow.
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.
Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung.