Listen, O listen, thou Wedding-guest! 1 Marinere! thou hast thy will :

For that, which comes out of thine eye, doth make

'My body and soul to be still.'

Never sadder tale was told

To a man of woman born; Sadder and wiser thou wedding-guest! Thou'lt rise to-morrow morn.

Never sadder tale was heard

By a man of woman born :
The Marineres all return'd to work
As silent as beforne.

The Marineres all 'gan pull the ropes,
But look at me they n'old :
Thought I, I am as thin as air-

They cannot me behold.

Till noon we silently sail'd on
Yet never a breeze did breathe :
Slowly and smoothly went the ship
Mov'd onward from beneath.

Under the keel nine fathom deep
From the land of mist and snow
The spirit slid and it was He
That made the Ship to go.
The sails at noon left off their tune
And the Ship stood still also.

The sun right up above the mast
Had fix'd her to the ocean:
But in a minute she 'gan stir

With a short uneasy motionBackwards and forwards half her length With a short uneasy motion.

Then, like a pawing horse let go,

She made a sudden bound:
It flung the blood into my head,
And I fell into a swound.

How long in that same fit I lay,
I have not to declare;
But ere my living life return'd,
I heard and in my soul discern'd
Two voices in the air,

370

380

390

400

'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the man? 'By him who died on cross,

'With his cruel bow he lay'd full low

'The harmless Albatross.

1 II. 362-377. These four stanzas omitted.

'Strange, by my faith! the Hermit said-And they answer'd not our cheer. 561 'The planks look warp'd, and see those sails

'How thin they are and sere! 'I never saw aught like to them 'Unless perchance it were

'The skeletons of leaves that lag

'My forest-brook along : When the Ivy-tod is heavy with snow, 'And the Owlet whoops to the wolf below 'That eats the she-wolf's young.

'Dear Lord! it has a fiendish look(The Pilot made reply)

'I am afear'd-'Push on, push on!
'Said the Hermit cheerily.

The Boat came closer to the Ship,
But I ne spake ne stirr'd!
The Boat came close beneath the Ship,
And strait a sound was heard!

570

Stunn'd by that loud and dreadful sound, Which sky and ocean smote:

Like one that had been seven days drown'd
My body lay afloat:

But, swift as dreams, myself I found
Within the Pilot's boat.

Upon the whirl, where sank the Ship,
The boat spun round and round :
And all was still, save that the hill
Was telling of the sound.

I mov'd my lips: the Pilot shriek'd
And fell down in a fit,
The Holy Hermit rais'd his eyes
And pray'd where he did sit.

I took the oars: the Pilot's boy,
Who now doth crazy go,

590

What loud uproar bursts from that door! The Wedding-guests are there;

But in the Garden-bower the Bride

And Bride-maids singing are: And hark the little Vesper bell Which biddeth me to prayer.

O Wedding-guest! this soul hath been 630
Alone on a wide wide sea :

So lonely 'twas, that God himself
Scarce seemed there to be.

!

THE VALE OF CHAMOUNY, AN HOUR BEFORE SUNRISE-AN HYMN.

[As sent to Sir George and Lady Beaumont, October 1803.]

bare!

O struggling with the darkness all the night,1

And visited all night by troops of stars,
Or when they climb the sky, or when they

sink :

29

Thyself earth's rosy star, and of the dawn Co-herald-wake, oh wake, and utter

And stopp'd at once amid their maddest plunge,

1 I had written a much finer line when Sca' Fell was in my thoughts, viz. :

O blacker than the darkness all the night,
And visited, etc.

2 A bad line; but I hope to be able to alter it.