The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:

He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner.

"The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse 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-"

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

The bride hat paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

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

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

"With sloping masts and dipping prow, As who pursued with yell and blow Still treads the shadow of his foe,

The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the line

The WeddingGuest heareth the bridal music; but the Mariner con. tinueth his tale

The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole

The land of ice, and of

fearful sounds where no liv

ing thing was to be seen

Till a great

sea-bird, called

And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.

"And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

"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.

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, the Albatross, Thorough the fog it came; came through As if it had been a Christian soul, the snow-fog, We hailed it in God's name.

and was received with great joy and hospitality

And lo! the
Albatross

proveth a bird

of good omen, and followeth

the ship as it returned northward through fog

"It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

"And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!

"In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,

and floating ice It perched for vespers nine;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine.”

"God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus !—
Why look'st thou so?"-With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross.

The ancient Mariner inhospitably

killeth the pious bird of good omen

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,
But no sweet bird did follow,

Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariner's hollo!

And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:

For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.

Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!

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.

His shipmates cry out against the ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good luck

But when the
fog cleared off,
they justify
the same, and
thus make
themselves
accomplices
in the crime

The fair breeze
continues; the
ship enters the
Pacific Ocean,
and sails north-
ward, even
till it reaches

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, the Line

'Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

The ship hath been suddenly becalmed

{H} HC XLI

400

401

Yet have my thoughts for thee been vigilant,
Bound to thy service with unceasing care—
The mind's least generous wish a mendicant
For nought but what thy happiness could spare.

Speak! though this soft warm heart, once free to hold
A thousand tender pleasures, thine and mine,
Be left more desolate, more dreary cold

Than a forsaken bird's-nest fill'd with snow
'Mid its own bush of leafless eglantine-

Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know!

DESIDERIA

SURPRIZED by joy-impatient as the wind-
I turn'd to share the transport-O with whom
But Thee-deep buried in the silent tomb,
That spot which no vicissitude can find?

Love, faithful love recall'd thee to my mind
But how could I forget thee? Through what power
Even for the least division of an hour
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind

To my most grievous loss-That thought's return
Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore
Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,

Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;
That neither present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.

WE MUST BE FREE OR DIE

It is not to be thought of that the flood
Of British freedom, which, to the open sea
Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity

Hath flowed, with pomp of waters, unwithstood,'

402

Roused though it be full often to a mood
Which spurns the check of salutary bands,
That this most famous Stream in bogs and sands
Should perish; and to evil and to good

Be lost for ever. In our halls is hung
Armoury of the invincible knights of old:
We must be free or die, who speak the tongue
That Shakespeare spoke: the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held.-In everything we are sprung
Of Earth's first blood, have titles manifold.

ENGLAND AND SWITZERLAND
[1802]

Two Voices are there, one is of the Sea,
One of the Mountains, each a mighty voice:
In both from age to age thou didst rejoice,
They were thy chosen music, Liberty!

There came a tyrant, and with holy glee
Thou fought'st against him, but hast vainly striven:
Thou from thy Alpine holds at length art driven
Where not a torrent murmurs heard by thee.

-Of one deep bliss thine ear hath been bereft;
Then cleave, O cleave to that which still is left-
For high-soul'd Maid, what sorrow would it be

That Mountain floods should thunder as before,
And Ocean bellow from his rocky shore,
And neither awful Voice be heard by Thee!

403 ON THE EXTINCTION OF The Venetian REPUBLIC

ONCE did She hold the gorgeous East in fee
And was the safeguard of the West; the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
Venice, the eldest child of liberty.