Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

primitive in its ceremonies, unequalled in its liturgical England, in a tolerating age, has shown herself emiforms; that our Church, which has kindled and dis-nently tolerant, and far more so, both in Spirit and in played more bright and burning lights of Genius and fact, that many of her most bitter opponents, who Learning, than all other Protestant churches since profess to deem toleration itself an insult on the the Reformation, was (with the single exception of rights of mankind! As to myself, who not only know the times of Laud and Sheldon) least intolerant, the Church-Establishment to be tolerant, but who when all Christians unhappily deemed a species of see in it the greatest, if not the sole safe bulwark of intolerance their religious duty; that Bishops of our Toleration, I feel no necessity of defending or palchurch were among the first that contended against liating oppressions under the two Charleses, in order this error; and finally, that since the Reformation, to exclaim with a full and fervent heart, ESTO PERwhen tolerance became a fashion, the Church of PETUA!

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

IN SEVEN PARTS.

Facile credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles in rerum universitate. Sed horum omnium familiam quis nobis enarrabit? et gradus et cognationes et discrimina et singulorum munera ? Quid agunt? quæ loca habitant? Harum rerum notitiam semper ambivit ingenium humanum, nunquam attigit. Juvat, interea, non diffiteor, quandoque in animo, tanquam in tabulâ, majoris et melioris mundi imaginem contemplari: ne mens assuefacta hodiernæ vitæ minutiis se contrahat nimis, et tota subsidat in pusillas cogitationes. Sed veritati interea invigilandum est, modusque servandus, ut certa ab incertis, diem a nocte, distinguamus.-T. BURNET: Archeol. Phil. p. 68.

[blocks in formation]

The weddingguest is spell

bound by the eye

of the old seafaring man, and constrained to hear his tale.

The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the line

And he stoppeth one of three:

The bride hath paced into the hall, The wedding-
Red as a rose is she;
guest heareth the
bridal music; but
Nodding their heads before her goes the Mariner con-

By thy long gray beard and glitter-The merry minstrelsy.

ing eye,

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ?

"The Bridegroom's doors are open'd

wide,

And I am next of kin ;

The guests are met, the feast is set:
Mayst hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand:
There was a ship," quoth he.

46

"Hold off! unhand me, gray-beard

loon!"

Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his

breast,

Yet he cannot choose but hear;

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

tinueth his tale.

And now the STORM-BLAST came, and The ship drawn

he

Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

With sloping masts and dripping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,

He holds him with his glittering eye-And forward bends his head,
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.

The ship drove fast, loud roar'd the
blast,

And southward aye we fled.

And now there came both mist and
snow,

Aud it grew wondrous cold;
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

by a storm toward the south pole

The ship was cheer'd, the harbor And through the drifts the snowy clifts The land of ice,

clear'd,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the light-house 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

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 crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd and
howl'd,

Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross an Albatross :

The Wedding-Guest here beat his Thorough the fog it came;

breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hail'd it in God's name.

70

and of fearful sounds, where no living thing was to be seen.

Till a great seabird, called the Albatross, came through the snowfog, and was received with great joy and hospital

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 steer'd us through!

And lo! the Al- And a good south-wind sprung up

batross proveth

a bird of good

omen, and follow

behind;

The Albatross did follow,

eth the ship as it And every day, for food or play, Came to the mariner's hollo!

returned north

ward through fog and floating ice.

The ancient Mariner inhospitably

killeth the pious bird of good

omen.

His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good-luck.

But when the fog

cleared off, they

justify the same,

and thus make

themselves ac

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!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,That ever this should be!

[blocks in formation]

Why look'st thou so?"-With my And some in dreams assured were

cross-bow

I shot the ALBATROSS.

PART II.

Of the spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had follow'd us
From the land of mist and snow.

And the Albatross begins to be avenged.

A spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of this planet,--neither departed souls nor angels; con

THE Sun now rose upon the right: cerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic
Out of the sea came he,

Still hid in mist, and on the left
Went down into the sea.

Constantinopolitan, Michael P'sellus, may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or element without

one or more.

And the good south-wind still blew And every tongue, through utter

[blocks in formation]

Nor dim nor red, like God's own THERE pass'd a weary time. Each

head,
The glorious Sun uprist:

Then all averr'd, I had kill'd the bird complices in the That brought the fog and mist. "T was right, said they, such birds to slay

crime.

That bring the fog and mist.

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.

At first it seem'd a little speck,

The fair breeze The fair breeze blew, the white foam And then it seem'd a mist;

[blocks in formation]

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt As if it dodged a water-sprite,

down,

"T was 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.

It plunged and tack'd and veer'd.

The shipmates, in
their sore distress
would fain throw
the whole guilt on
the ancient Mar
iner-in sign
whereof they
hang the dead
sea-bird round
his neck.

The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off.

With throats unslaked, with black At its nearer ap-
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!

proach, it seemeth him to be a ship; and at a dear ransom he

freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst.

62

With throats unslaked, with black One after one, by the star-dogged One after anlips baked,

Agape they heard me call;

A flash of joy. Gramercy! they for joy did grin,

[blocks in formation]

It seemeth him but the skeleton of a ship.

And its ribs are

seen as bars on the face of the Betting Sun.

The spectrewoman and her death-mate, and no other on board the skeleton-ship. Like vessel, like crew!

And all at once their breath drew in,
As they were drinking all.

See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more!
Hither to work us weal;
Without a breeze, without a tide,
She steadies with upright keel!

The western wave was all a flame,
The day was well-nigh done,
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun;
When that strange shape drove sud-
denly

Betwixt us and the Sun.

Moon,

Too quick for groan or sigh,
Each turn'd his face with a ghastly

pang,

And cursed me with his eye.

Four times fifty living men
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan),
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropp'd down one by one.
The souls did from their bodies fly,-
They fled to bliss or woe!
And every soul, it pass'd me by
Like the whizz of my CROSS-BOW!

PART IV.

"I FEAR thee, ancient Mariner!

And straight the Sun was fleck'd I fear thy skinny hand!

with bars,

(Heaven's Mother send us grace!)
As if through a dungeon-grate he
peer'd

With broad and burning face.

And thou art long, and lank, and
brown,

As is the ribb'd sea-sand.*

"I fear thee and thy glittering eye,
And thy skinny hand so brown.".

[blocks in formation]

But Life-in

Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner.

The weddingguest feareth that a spirit is talking to him;

Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding- But the ancient

[blocks in formation]

Guest!

This body dropt not down.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide wide sea!

Are those her ribs through which the My soul in agony.

And never a saint took pity on

Sun

Did peer, as through a grate;

And is that woman all her crew?
Is that a DEATH, and are there two?
IS DEATH that woman's mate?

Her lips were red, her looks were
free,

Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Night-Mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was
she,

Who thicks man's blood with cold.

Death, and Life- The naked hulk alongside came,
And the twain were casting dice;
"The game is done! I've won, I've

[blocks in formation]

The many men, so beautiful!
And a thousand thousand slimy
And they all dead did lie:
things

Lived on; and so did I.

I look'd upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
And there the dead men lay.
I look'd upon the rotting deck,

I look'd to Heaven, and tried to pray;
But or ever a prayer had gush'd,
A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.

I closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea
and the sky,

Lay like a load on my weary eye

At one stride comes the Dark;
With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea And the dead were at my feet.
Off shot the spectre-bark.

We listen'd and look'd sideways up!
Fear at my heart, as at a cup,
My life-blood seem'd to sip!
The stars were dim, and thick the

[blocks in formation]

The cold sweat melted from their
limbs,

Mariner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance.

He despiseth the creatures of the calm.

And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.

But the curse liv

[me

eth for him in the eye of the dead

Nor rot nor reek did they;
The look with which they look'd on
Had never pass'd away.

An orphan's curse would drag to Hell
A spirit from on high;

men.

Wordsworth. It was on a delightful walk from Nether Stowey *For the two last lines of this stanza, I am indebted to Mr. to Dulverton, with him and his sister, in the Autumn of 1797, that this Poem was planned, and in part composed.

[blocks in formation]

The upper air burst into life!

In his loneliness The moving Moon went up the sky, And a hundred fire-flags sheen,

and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying Moon, and the

stars that still so

And nowhere did abide :

Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside

journ, yet still move onward; and everywhere the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest, and their native country and their own natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords that are certainly expected, and yet there is a silent joy at their arrival.

By the light of the Moon he be

holdeth God's

⚫ creatures of the

great calm.

Their beauty and their happiness.

He blesseth them in his heart.

Her beams bemock'd the sultry main,
Like April hoar-frost spread;
But where the ship's huge shadow
lay,

The charmed water burnt alway
A still and awful red.

Beyond the shadow of the ship
I watch'd the water-snakes:
They moved in tracks of shining
white,

And when they rear'd, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship
I watch'd their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coil'd and swam; and every
track

Was a flash of golden fire.

O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gush'd from my
heart,

And I bless'd them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I bless'd them unaware.

The spell begins The self-same moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free

to break.

By grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner

is refreshed with

rain.

The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea.

PART V.

On 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.

The silly buckets on the deck,
That had so long remain'd, [dew;
I dreamt that they were fill'd with
And when I awoke, it rain'd.

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.

To and fro they were hurried about!
And to and fro, and in and out,
The wan stars danced between.

And the coming wind did roar more loud,

And the sails did sigh like sedge;
And the rain pour'd down from one
The Moon was at its edge.'
black cloud;

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.

in the sky and the element.

[blocks in formation]

I moved, and could not feel my Around, around, flew each sweet

limbs :

I was so light-almost

I thought that I had died in sleep,

And was a blessed ghost.

sound,

Then darted to the Sun;

Slowly the sounds came back again, Now mix'd, now one by one.

The lonesome spirit from the

south-pole carries

on the ship as far as the line, in obedience to the angelic troop, but

still requireth vengeance.

The Polar Spirit's fellow dæmons, the invisible inhabitants of the

Sometimes, a-drooping from the sky,
I heard the sky-lark sing;
Sometimes all little birds that are,
How they seem'd to fill the sea and
air,

With their sweet jargoning!

PART VI.

FIRST VOICE.

BUT tell me, tell me! speak again,
Thy soft response renewing-
What makes that ship drive on so
fast?

And now 't was like all instruments, What is the OCEAN doing? .

Now like a lonely flute;

And now it is an angel's song,

That makes the Heavens be mute.

SECOND VOICE.

Still as a slave before his lord,
The OCEAN hath no blast;
His great bright eye most silently

It ceased; yet still the sails made on Up to the Moon is cast

A pleasant noise till noon,

A noise like of a hidden brook

In the leafy month of June,

If he may know which way to go;
For she guides him smooth or grim.

That to the sleeping woods all night See, brother, see! how graciously

Singeth a quiet tune.

Till noon we quietly sailed on,
Yet never a breeze did breathe:

Slowly and smoothly went the ship,

Moved onward from beneath.

Under the keel nine fathom deep,
From the land of mist and snow,
The spirit slid: and it was he
That made the ship to go.

The sails at noon left off their tune,
And the ship stood still also.

The Sun, right up above the mast,
Had fix'd her to the ocean:
But in a minute she 'gan stir,
With a short uneasy motion-
Backwards and forwards half
length

With a short uneasy motion.

Then like a pawing horse let go,
She made a sudden bound:
It flung the blood into my head,
And I fell down in a swound.

How long in that same fit I lay,
I have not to declare;
But ere my living life return'd,
element, take part I heard and in my soul discern'd

in his wrong;

and two of them

relate, one to the other, that pen

ance long and

Two VOICES in the air.

her

"Is it he?" quoth one, "Is this the
man?

heavy for the an- By him who died on cross,

cient Mariner

[blocks in formation]

hath been accord- With his cruel bow he laid full low Of what had else been seen

[blocks in formation]
« ForrigeFortsett »