For

Went down into the sea.

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall,

Red as a rose is she;

20 Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

the

himself under supernatural agency.
second class, subjects were to be chosen from
ordinary life; the characters and incidents were The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
to be such as will be found in every village and Yet he cannot choose but hear;
its vicinity where there is a meditative and feel-
ing mind to seek after them, or to notice them
when they present themselves.

"In this idea originated the plan of the Lyrical Ballads; in which it was agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

"And now the Storm-blast came, and he Was tyrannous and strong:

interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to
procure for these shadows of imagination that He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, And chased us south along.
which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth,
on the other hand, was to propose to himself as
his object, to give the charm of novelty to things
of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to
the supernatural, by awakening the mind's atten-
tion from the lethargy of custom, and directing it
to the loveliness and the wonders of the world
inexhaustible
which, in consequence of the film of familiarity
cars that hear not, and hearts that neither feel
and selfish solicitude, we have eyes, yet see not,
nor understand. With this view I wrote The
Ancient Mariner."

before us; an

treasure, but for

The poem is here given in the revised text of 1829.
As first printed in the Lyrical Ballads, the
diction and spelling were considerably more
was not
archaic, as the Argument, which
retained in the later edition, shows.

With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,
And southward aye we fled.
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,

And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, worth gives the following information: As green as emerald.

Words

"Much the greatest part of the story was
Mr. Coleridge's invention, but certain parts
I suggested for example, some crime was
to be committed which should bring upon
the Old Navigator, as Coleridge afterward de-
lighted to call him, the spectral persecution,
as a consequence of that crime and his own
wanderings. I had been reading in Shel-
Vocke's Voyages a day or two before, that.
while doubling Cape Horn, they frequently
saw albatrosses in that latitude, the largest
sort
their
of sea-fowl, some extending
wings twelve or thirteen feet. 'Suppose,' said
I. you represent him as having killed one
of these birds on entering the South Sea.
and that the tutelary spirits of these re-
gions take upon them to avenge the crime.'
The incident was thought fit for the purpose
and adopted accordingly." Wordsworth also
furnished several lines of the poem, espe-
cially 15-16, 226-227.

1 at once

་

And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-
The ice was all between.

30

40

50

13-21. The Wedding-Guest is spell-bound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained to hear his tale. 21-30. The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the line.

31-40. The Wedding Guest heareth the bridal music but the Mariner continueth his tale.

41-50. The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole.

51-62. The land of ice, and of fearful sounds, where no living thing was to be seen.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

70 The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, All in a hot and copper sky,

3 "The marineres gave it biscuit-worms" (1798 ed.) They are very numerous, and there is no climate

The naked hulk alongside came,
And the twain were casting dice;

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,The game is done! I've won! I've won!'

We could nor laugh, nor wail;

Through utter drought all 'dumb we stood!

I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,

And cried, A sail! a sail!

160

Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out.
At one stride comes the dark;
With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea,

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, Off shot the spectre-bark.

Agape they heard me call:

Gramercy! they for joy did grin,

And all at once their breath drew in,
As they were drinking all.

139-142. The shipmates, in their sore distress. would fain throw the whole guilt on the ancient Mariner in sign whereof they hang the dead seabird round his neck.

143-156. The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off.

We listened and looked sideways up!
Fear at my heart, as at a cup,
My life-blood seemed to sip!

200

177-186. It seemeth him but the skeleton of a

157-163. At its nearer approach, it seemeth him ship. And its ribs are seen as bars on the face of

to be a ship; and at a dear ransom he freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst.

164-166. A flash of joy.

167-176. And horror follows. For can it be a ship that comes onward without wind or tide? e I knew (but apparently confused in form and meaning with the old participial adverb y-wis, "surely").

7 great thanks

the setting Sun.

187-194. The Spectre-Woman and her Deathmate, and no other on board the skeleton-ship. Like vessel, like crew!

195-198. Death and Life-in-Death have diced for the ship's crew, and she (the latter) winneth the ancient Mariner. 199-202. No twilight within the courts of the 203-223. At the rising of the Moon, one after

Sun.