PART IV

'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 I.

'I look'd upon the rotting sea, And drew my eyes away; I look'd upon the rotting deck, And there the dead men lay.

'I look'd 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 look'd on me Had never pass'd away.

'An orphan's curse would drag to Hell A spirit from on high; But oh! more horrible than that Is the 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 nowhere did abide: Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside-- Her beams bemock'd the sultry main, Like April hoar-frost spread; But where the ship's huge shadow lay, The charmèd 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 rear'd, 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 coil'd 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 gush'd from my heart, And I bless'd them unaware! Sure my kind saint took pity on me, And I bless'd 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.'