Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/679

 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

��'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, And forward bends his head, The ship drove fast, loud roar'd 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 crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd and howPd,

Like noises in a swound'

At length did cross an Albatross, Thorough the fog it came; As if it had been a Christian soul, We hail'd it in God's name.

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 steer'd us through!

��The ship driven by a storm to- ward the South Pole

��The land of ice, and of fearful sounds, where no living thing was to be seen

��Till a gi eat sea-bird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog, and was re- ceived with great joy and hospitality

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