Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/689

 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

The upper air burst into life; And a hundred fire-flags sheen ; To and fro they were hurried about! And to and fro, and in and out, The wan stars danced between.

And the coming wind did roar more loud, And the sails did sigh like sedge; And the rain pour'd down from one black cloud; The Moon was at its edge.

The thick black cloud was cleft, and still The Moon was at its side, Like waters shot from some high crag, The lightning fell with never a jag, A river steep and wide.

The loud wind never reach 'd the ship, The bodies nf

_ r i i ii the ship's crew

Yet nOW the ship moved On' are inspired,

Beneath the lightning and the Moon mo^on^

The dead men gave a groan.

They groan'd, they stirr'd, they all uprose, Nor spake, nor moved their eyes, It had been strange, even in a dream, To have seen thobe dead men rise.

The helmsman steer'd, the ship moved on;

Yet never a breeze up-b]ew;

The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,

Where they were wont to do;

They raised their limbs like lifeless tools

We were a ghastly crew.

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