Her beams bemocked 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 watched the water-snakes :

They moved in tracks of shining white And when they reared, the elfish light

Fell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watched their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black

They coiled and swam ; and

Was a flash of golden fire.

every track

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

A spring of love gusht from my heart,

And I blessed them unaware!

Sure

my

kind saint took pity on me,

And I blessed them unaware.

The self-same moment I could pray;

And from my neck so free

The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea.

V.

"O 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 remained,

I dreamt that they were filled with dew, And when I awoke it rained.

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.

I moved and could not feel my limbs,

I was so light, almost

I thought that I had died in sleep,

And was a blessed Ghost..

And soon I heard a roaring wind,

It did not come anear;

But with its sound it shook the sails
That were so thin and sere.

The upper air burst into life,
And a hundred fire-flags sheen

To and fro they were hurried about;
And to and fro, and in and out

The wan stars danced between.

d;

And the coming wind did roar more loud

And the sails did sigh like sedge:

And the rain poured down from one black cloud

The moon was at its edge.

Sometimes a-dropping from the sky

I heard the Sky-lark sing;

Sometimes all little birds that are

How they seemed to fill the sea and air With their sweet jargoning!

And now 'twas like all instruments,
Now like a lonely flute :

And now it is an angel's song

That makes the heavens be mute.

It ceased: yet still the sails made on
A pleasant noise till noon,

A noise like of a hidden brook

In the leafy month of June,

That to the sleeping woods all night

Singeth a quiet tune.