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 every track

Was a flash of golden fire.

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.

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.

The thick black cloud was cleft, and still

The Moon was at its side:

Like waters shot from some high crag,

The lightning fell with never a jag

A river steep and wide.

The loud wind never reached the Ship,
Yet now the Ship moved on!
Beneath the lightning and the moon
The dead men gave a groan.

They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes:

It had been strange, even in a dream
To have seen those dead men rise.

The helmsman steered, the ship moved on; Yet never a breeze up-blew;

The Mariners all 'gan work the ropes,

Where they were wont to do:

They raised their limbs like lifeless tools

We were a ghastly crew.