RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER 109 Each Baron, for a sable shroud, Sheathed in his iron panoply. Seemed all on fire within, around, And glimmered all the dead men's mail. Blazed battlement and pinnet high, Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair There are twenty of Roslin's barons bold But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle ! And each Saint Clair was buried there Sir Walter Scott. RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER1 PART I It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. "By thy long gray beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ? 1 Note 11. "The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide, And I am next of kin ; The guests are met, the feast is set: He holds him with his skinny hand, "There was a ship," quoth he. "Hold off! unhand me, gray-beard loon! Eftsoons his hand dropt he. He holds him with his glittering eye :· The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: And thus spake on that ancient man, "The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared; Merrily did we drop Below the kirk, below the hill, Below the light-house top. "The sun came up upon the left, Out of the sea came he! And he shone bright, and on the right Went down into the sea. "Higher and higher every day, Till over the mast at noon RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER 111 The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, The bride hath paced into the hall, Nodding their heads before her goes The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, "And now the storm-blast came, and he He struck with his o'ertaking wings, "With sloping masts and dipping prow, 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, "And through the drifts the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen: Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken, - "The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound! "At length did cross an Albatross, As if it had been a Christian soul, "It ate the food it ne'er had ate, "And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did follow, And every day, for food or play, Came to the mariners' hollo! "In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, It perched for vespers nine; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white moonshine." "God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends that plague thee thus ! RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER 113 PART II "The sun now rose upon the right: Out of the sea came he Still hid in mist, and on the left Went down into the sea. "And the good south wind still blew behind, Nor any day for food or play "And I had done a hellish thing, For all averred I had killed the bird Ah, wretch! said they, the bird to slay, "Nor dim nor red, like God's own head, The glorious sun uprist: Then all averred I had killed the bird That brought the fog and mist: 'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, That bring the fog and mist. "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free; We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea. "Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be ; |