But swift as dreams, myself I found "Upon the whirl, where sank the ship, 555 559 "I moved my lips-the Pilot shriek'd And fell down in a fit; The holy Hermit raised his eyes, And pray'd where he did sit. 563 "I took the oars: the Pilot's boy, Who now doth crazy go, Laugh'd loud and long, and all the while His eyes went to and fro. 'Ha! ha!' quoth he, 'full plain I see, The Devil knows how to row.' "And now, all in my own countree, I stood on the firm land! The Hermit stepp'd forth from the boat, 666 "O shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man!' The Hermit cross'd his brow. 'Say quick,' quoth he, 'I bid thee say— What manner of man art thou?' "Forthwith this frame of mine was wrench'd With a woful agony, Which forced me to begin my tale; And then it left me free. 581 And ever from land to 66 Since then, at an uncertain hour, That agony returns: And till my ghastly tale is told, "I pass, like night, from land to land; That moment that his face I see, 585 I know the man that must hear me: 590 What loud uproar bursts from that door! The wedding-guests are there: But in the garden-bower the Bride And bride-maids singing are: And hark, the little vesper bell, Which biddeth me to prayer! 596 "O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been Alone on a wide, wide sea: So lonely 't was, that God Himself 600 "O sweeter than the marriage-feast, 604 "To walk together to the kirk, And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends, 66 Old men, and babes, and loving friends, Farewell, farewell! but this I tell "He prayeth best, who loveth best The Mariner, whose eye is bright, Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest He went like one that hath been stunn'd, A sadder and a wiser man, 609 and to teach, by his own example, love and reverence to 613 all things that God made and loveth. 617 621 He rose the morrow morn. 1798. 625 Samuel Taylor Coleridge. YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND YE Mariners of England! That guard our native seas; Whose flag has braved, a thousand years, Your glorious standard launch again And sweep through the deep, While the stormy winds do blow; The spirits of your fathers Shall start from every wave! — For the deck it was their field of fame, Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell, Your manly hearts shall glow, As ye sweep through the deep, Britannia needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep; Her march is o'er the mountain-waves, ΤΟ 20 1801. With thunders from her native oak, As they roar on the shore, When the stormy winds do blow; The meteor flag of England Till danger's troubled night depart, Then, then, ye ocean warriors! When the storm has ceased to blow; Thomas Campbell. 30 40 THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS IN NEW ENGLAND THE breaking waves dashed high And the heavy night hung dark The hills and waters o'er, When a band of exiles moored their bark On the wild New England shore. 8 |