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'The cold sweat melted from their limbs, 'Ne rot, ne 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 O! more horrible than that

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'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 no where did abide:

Softly she was going up

And a star or two beside,

'Her beams bemock'd the sultry main
Like morning frosts yspread;
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 watch'd the water-snakes;

'They mov'd in tracks of shining white; ' and when they rear'd, the elfish light Fell off in hoary flakes.

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"Within the shadow of the ship 'I watch'd 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 gusht 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
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
'Like lead into the sea.

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'O Sleep! it is a gentle thing, • Belov'd from Pole to Pole! 'To Mary-queen the praise be yeven, 'She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven 'That slid into my soul.

The silly buckets on the deck • That had so long remain'd,

'I dreamt that they were fill'd with dew, ' And when I awoke it rain'd.

'My lips were wet, my throat was cold, 'My garments all were dank;

Sure I had drunken in my dreams ' And still my body drank.

'I mov'd and could not feel my limbs, 'I was so light almost

'I thought that I had died in sleep, 'And was a blessed ghost.

The roaring wind! it roar'd far off, " It did not come anear;

• But with its sound it shook the sails 'That were so thin and sere.

The upper air bursts into life,
'And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
To and fro they are hurried about;
And to and fro, and in and out,
'The stars dance on between.

'The coming wind doth roar more loud; The sails do sigh like sedge:

'The rain pours down from one black cloud And the moon is at its edge.

• Hark! hark! the thick black cloud is cleft, And the moon is at its side:

'Like waters shot from some high crag,
• The lightning falls with never a jag
A river steep and wide..

The strong wind reach'd the ship; it roar'd 'And dropp'd down like a stone!

'Beneath the lightning and the moon

The dead men gave a groan

.

They groan'd, they stirr'd, they all uprose, Ne spake, ne mov'd their eyes:

'It had been strange, even in a dream

To have seen those dead men rise.

'The helmsman steer'd, the ship mov'd on; 'Yet never a breeze up-blew;

The marineres all 'gan work the ropes, 'Where they were wont to do:

They rais'd their limbs like lifeless tools,'We were a ghastly crew.

The body of my brother's son 'Stood by me knee to knee;

• The body and I pull'd at one rope, • But he said nought to me—

' And I quak'd to think of my own voice 'How frightful it would be!

The day-light dawn'd-they dropp'd their

arms,

And cluster'd round the mast:

'Sweet sounds rose slowly thro' their mouths And from their bodies pass'd.

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Around, around, flew each sweet sound,

'Then darted to the sun:

Slowly the sounds came back again

'Now mix'd, now one by one.

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