"I fear thee, ancient Mariner!
I fear thy skinny hand!
And thou art long, and lank, and brown, As is the ribbed sea-sand.
"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.
The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did II 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 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 feet.
The cold sweat melted from their limbs, Nor rot nor reek did they:
The look with which they looked on me Had never passed away.
An orphan's curse would drag to Hell A spirit from on high;But oh! more horrible than that Is a curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, And yet I could not die.
The moving Moon went up the sky, And no where did abide:
Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside.
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 gushed 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.
