IV.
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I fear thee, ancyent Marinere!“I 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 aloneAlone on the wide wide Sea;And Christ would take no pity onMy soul in agony. The many men so beautiful,And they all dead did lie!And a million million slimy thingsLiv’d on--and so did I. I look’d upon the rotting Sea,And drew my eyes away;I look’d upon the eldritch deck,And there the dead men lay. I look’d to Heaven, and try’d to pray;But or ever a prayer had gusht,A wicked whisper came and madeMy heart as dry as dust. I clos’d my lids and kept them close,Till the balls like pulses beat;For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the skyLay like a load on my weary eye,And the dead were at my feet. 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 HellA spirit from on high:But O! more horrible than thatIs the curse in a dead man’s eye!Seven days, seven nights I saw that curseAnd yet I could not die. The moving Moon went up the skyAnd no where did abide:Softly she was going upAnd a star or two beside-- Her beams bemock’d the sultry mainLike morning frosts yspread;But where the ship’s huge shadow lay,The charmed water burnt alwayA still and awful red. Beyond the shadow of the shipI watch’d the water-snakes:They mov’d in tracks of shining white;And when they rear’d, the elfish lightFell off in hoary flakes. Within the shadow of the shipI watch’d their rich attire:Blue, glossy green, and velvet blackThey coil’d and swam; and every trackWas a flash of golden fire. O happy living things! no tongueTheir 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 pray;And from my neck so freeThe Albatross fell off, and sankLike lead into the sea.
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