Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/685

 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

��Till clomb above the eastern bar

The horned Moon, with one bright star

Within the nether tip.

One after one, by the star-dogg'd Moon, Too quick for groan or sigh, Each turn'd his face with a ghastly pang, And cursed me with his eye.

Four times fifty living men (And I heard nor sigh nor groan), With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropp'd down one by one.

The souls did from their bodies fly They fled to bliss or woe' And every soul, it pass'd me by

PART IV

'I fear thee, ancient Mariner'

1 fear thy skinny hand'

And thou art long, and lank, and brown,

As is the ribb'd 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.

��At the rising of the Moon,

��One after another,

��His shipmates drop down dead

��But Life-in- Death begins her work on the incient Manner

��The Wedding- Guest feareth that a spirit is talking to him

��But the an- cient Manner assureth him of his bodily life, and pro- ceedeth to re- late his horrible penance

�� �