The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Part VI. (But tell me, tell me! speak again...)
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
FIRST VOICEBut tell me, tell me! speak again, | |
SECOND VOICE"Still as a slave before his lord,The ocean hath no blast; His great bright eye most silently Up to the moon is cast-- | |
If he may know which way to go; For she guides him smooth or grim. See, brother, see! how graciously She looketh down on him." | |
FIRST VOICEBut why drives on that ship so fast, | The Mariner hath been cast into a trance; for the angelic power causeth the vessel to drive northward faster than human life could endure. |
SECOND VOICE"The air is cut away before,And closes from behind. | |
Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high! Or we shall be belated: For slow and slow that ship will go, When the Mariner's trance is abated." | |
I woke, and we were sailing on As in a gentle weather: 'Twas night, calm night, the moon was high, The dead men stood together. | The supernatural motion is retarded; the Mariner awakes, and his penance begins anew. |
All stood together on the deck, For a charnel-dungeon fitter: All fixed on me their stony eyes, That in the Moon did glitter. | |
The pang, the curse, with which they died, Had never passed away: I could not draw my eyes from theirs, Nor turn them up to pray. | |
And now this spell was snapt: once more I viewed the ocean green, And looked far forth, yet little saw Of what had else been seen -- | The curse is finally expiated. |
Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread. | |
But soon there breathed a wind on me, Nor sound nor motion made: Its path was not upon the sea, In ripple or in shade. | |
It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek Like a meadow-gale of spring -- It mingled strangely with my fears, Yet it felt like a welcoming. | |
Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, Yet she sailed softly too: Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze -- On me alone it blew. | |
Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed The light-house top I see? Is this the hill? is this the kirk? Is this mine own countree? | And the ancient Mariner beholdeth his native country. |
We drifted o'er the harbour-bar, And I with sobs did pray -- O let me be awake, my God! Or let me sleep alway. | |
The harbour-bay was clear as glass, So smoothly it was strewn! And on the bay the moonlight lay, And the shadow of the Moon. | |
The rock shone bright, the kirk no less, That stands above the rock: The moonlight steeped in silentness The steady weathercock. | |
And the bay was white with silent light Till rising from the same, Full many shapes, that shadows were, In crimson colours came. | The Angelic spirits leave the dead bodies, |
A little distance from the prow Those crimson shadows were: I turned my eyes upon the deck -- Oh, Christ! what saw I there! | And appear in their own forms of light. |
Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat, And, by the holy rood! A man all light, a seraph-man, On every corse there stood. | |
This seraph-band, each waved his hand: It was a heavenly sight! They stood as signals to the land, Each one a lovely light; | |
This seraph-band, each waved his hand, No voice did they impart -- No voice; but oh! the silence sank Like music on my heart. | |
But soon I heard the dash of oars, I heard the Pilot's cheer; My head was turned perforce away, And I saw a boat appear. | |
The Pilot and the Pilot's boy, I heard them coming fast: Dear Lord in Heaven! it was a joy The dead men could not blast. | |
I saw a third -- I heard his voice: It is the Hermit good! He singeth loud his godly hymns That he makes in the wood. He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away The Albatross's blood. |
Source:
The Golden Book Of ColeridgeCopyright 1914
London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.