IH. 'I saw a something in the sky A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! With throat unslack'd, with black lips bak'd, Ne could we laugh, ne wail: • Then while thro' drouth all dumb they stood 'I bit my arm and suck'd the blood And cry'd, A sail! a sail! With throat unslack'd, with black lips bak', Agape they heard me call: Gramercy! they for joy did grin And all at once their breath drew in As they were drinking all. She doth not tack from side to side'Hither to work us weal, • Withouten wind, withouten tide She steddies with upright keel. 'The western wave was all a flame; And strait the sun was fleck'd with bars, '(Heaven's mother send us grace) 'As if thro' a dungeon grate he peer'd • With broad and burning face. Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud) 'How fast she neres and neres! Are those her sails that glance in the sun 'Like restless Gossameres? 'Are those her naked ribs, which fleck'd • The sun that did behind them peer? And are those two all, all the crew, 'That woman and her fleshless Pheere? 'His bones were black with many à crack, • All black and bare, I ween; 'Jet-black and bare, save where with rust Of mouldy damps and charnel crust • Her lips are red, her looks are free, 6 Her locks are yellow as gold: • Her skin is as white as leprosy, The naked hulk alongside came ' And the twain were playing dice; ""The game is done! I've won, I've won!"* Quoth she, and whistled thrice. A gust of wind sterte up. behind And whistled thro' his bones; 'Thro' the holes of his eyes and the hole of his mouth "Half-whistles and half-groans. With never a whisper in the sea • While clombe above the Eastern bar Almost atween the tips. 25 • One after one by the horned moon, • Each turn'd his face with a ghastly pang Four times fifty living men, Their souls did from their bodies fly, And every soul it pass'd me by, IV. "I fear thee, ancyent Marinere! "And thou art long, and lank, and brown "I fear thee and thy glittering eye Alone, alone, all all alone! 'Alone on the wide wide sea; • And Christ would take no pity on 'My soul in agony. The many men so beautiful, And a million million slimy things I look'd upon the rotting sea, And drew my eyes away; 'I look'd upon the eldritch deck, • And there the dead men lay. 'I look'd to Heaven, and try'd to pray; But or ever a prayer had gusht, 'I clos'd my lids and kept them close, Till 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, And the dead were at my et. |