English Songs and Ballads Part 41

[Sidenote: Like vessel, like crew!]

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.

[Sidenote: Death and Life-in-Death have diced for the s.h.i.+p's crew, and she (the latter) winneth the ancient Mariner.]

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

Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: At one stride comes the dark; With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea, Off shot the spectre-bark.

[Sidenote: At the rising of the Moon,]

We listened and looked sideways up!

Fear at my heart, as at a cup, My life-blood seemed to sip!

The stars were dim, and thick the night, The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white; From the sails the dew did drip-- Till clomb above the eastern bar The horned Moon, with one bright star Within the nether tip.

[Sidenote: One after another,]

One after one, by the star-dogged Moon, Too quick for groan or sigh, Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, And cursed me with his eye.

[Sidenote: His s.h.i.+pmates drop down dead.]

Four times fifty living men, (And I heard nor sigh nor groan) With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropped down one by one.

[Sidenote: But Life-in-Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner.]

The souls did from their bodies fly,-- They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it pa.s.sed me by, Like the whizz of my cross-bow!'

PART IV

[Sidenote: The Wedding-Guest feareth that a spirit is talking to him;]

'I fear thee, Ancient Mariner!

I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou art long, and lank, and brown, As is the ribbed sea-sand.

[Sidenote: But the ancient Mariner a.s.sureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance.]

I fear thee and thy glittering eye, And thy skinny hand, so brown.'-- 'Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest!

This body dropt not down.

Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony.

[Sidenote: He despiseth the creatures of the calm,]

The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I.

[Sidenote: And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.]

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

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

I closed my lids, and kept them close, And the b.a.l.l.s like pulses beat; For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky, Lay like a load on my weary eye, And the dead were at my feet.

[Sidenote: But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men.]

The cold sweat melted from their limbs, Nor rot nor reek did they: The look with which they looked on me Had never pa.s.sed away.

An orphan's curse would drag to h.e.l.l A spirit from on high; But oh! more horrible than that Is the curse in a dead man's eye!

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, And yet I could not die.

[Sidenote: In his loneliness and fixedness, he yearneth towards the journeying Moon, and the stars that still sojourn, 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.]

The moving Moon went up the sky, And nowhere did abide: Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside.

Her beams bemocked the sultry main, Like April h.o.a.r-frost spread; But where the s.h.i.+p's huge shadow lay, The charmed water burnt alway A still and awful red.

[Sidenote: By the light of the Moon he beholdeth G.o.d's creatures of the great calm.]

Beyond the shadow of the s.h.i.+p, I watched the water-snakes: They moved in tracks of s.h.i.+ning white, And when they reared, the elfish light Fell off in h.o.a.ry flakes.

Within the shadow of the s.h.i.+p I watched their rich attire: Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, They coiled and swam; and every track Was a flash of golden fire.

[Sidenote: Their beauty and their happiness.]

[Sidenote: He blesseth them in his heart.]

O happy living things! no tongue Their beauty might declare: A spring of love gushed from my heart, And I blessed them unaware!

Sure my kind saint took pity on me, And I blessed them unaware.

[Sidenote: The spell begins to break.]

The selfsame moment I could pray; And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea.

PART V

'Oh 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.

[Sidenote: By grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.]

The silly buckets on the deck, That had so long remained, I dreamt that they were filled with dew; And when I awoke, it rained.