PRICE 5 CENTS HE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER By SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE BECK LE^ - CA RD^s^ C O -;.,.x:hicago ^y--:-::::0-\. : SUPPLEMENTARY READERS FOR ALL GRADES BOW-WOW AND MEW-MEW By Georgiana M. Craik. Edited by Joseph C. Sindelar The story of a young dog and cat, and one of the few books for beginners in reading that may be classed as literature. The story, the style, and the moral are all good. 32 illustrations in colors. 95 pages. Cloth. Price, 30 cents THE NIXIE BUNNY BOOKS By Joseph C. Sindelar Nixie Bunny in Manners-Land — A Rabbit Story of Good Manners Nixie Bunny in Workaday-Land — A Rabbit Story of the Occupations Nixie Bunny in Holiday-Land — ^A Rabbit Story of the Holidays The Nixie Bunny Books have been read by over 75,000 children in two years. They are unsurpassed in popularity by any children's books ever published. 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Bow-Bow and Mew-Mew — Craik — Grades 1-2 — 95 pages (12 cents) Peter Rabbit and Other Tales — Grades 2-3 The King of tlie Gole^en River — Ruskin — Grades 4-6 Rip Van Winkle and the Author's Account of Himself — Irving — Grades 5-8 The Leg-end of Sleepy Hollow — Irving — Grades 5-8 Thanatopsis, Sella and Other Poems — Bryant — Grades 5-8 The Courtship of Miles Standish — Longfellow — Grades 6-8 1 he Pied Piper of Hamelin and Other Poems — Browning — Grades 6-8 10 van feline — Longfellow — Grades 6-8 T)ie Great Stone Face — Hawthorne — Grades 6-8 Tbe :M;Ln Without a Country — Hale — Grades 6-8 Snow-Bound and Other Poems — Whittier — Grades 6-8 Enoch Arden — Tennyson — Grades 6-H. S. The Vision of Sir Launfal and Other Poems — Lowell — Grades 6-H. S. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner — Coleridge — Grades 7-H. S. The Cotter's Saturday Night and Other Poems — Burns — Grades 7-H. S. The Deserted Village (Goldsmith) and Elegy — Gray — Grades 7-H. S. Price, per copy, 5 cents, postpaid, unless otherwise mentioned 128-page illustrated Catalogue of Books mailed upon request BECKLEY-CARDY COMPANY Publishers CHICAGO progresstve Scbool Classics THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Edited with Biographical Sketch, Portrait, and Notes by HELEN WOODROW BONES CHICAGO BECKLEY-CARDY COMPANY THE ANCIENT MARINER The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: He cannot choose but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, The bright-eyed Mariner. 20 The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the Line. * * The ship was cheered, the harbor 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. 25 The bride hath paced into the hall, Red as a rose is she ; The Wedding- Guest heareth the bridal music; but the unuith^'hisVaie. Noddiug their heads before her goes The merry minstrelsy. 35 The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, Yet he cannot choose but hear ; And thus spake on that ancient man The bright-eyed Mariner. 4U The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole. ''And now the Storm-blast came, and he Was tyrannous and strong: He struck with his o'ertaking wings, And chased us south along. THE ANCIENT MARINER 5 "With sloping masts and dipping prow, 45 As who pursued with yell and blow Still treads the shadow of his foe, And forward bends his head, The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast. And southward aye we fled. 50 **And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald. The land of ice. and of fearful sounds, where no living thing was to be seen. ' ' And through the drifts the snowy clif ts Did send a dismal sheen : Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken — The ice was all between. 55 "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 ! Till a great sea- <'At length did cross an Albatross, bird, called the ^ ' fh^o^ugh'the^""^ Through the fog it came ; waTrec^eTytd"^ As if it had becu a Christian soul, and h^^slfitauty. Wc hailed it in God's name. 65 "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 ! 70 And lo! the Albatross proveth a bird "And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did follow, THE ANCIENT MARINER til' f;:c>ti(l omen, and followeth the ship as it returned north- ward through fog and floating ice. And every day, for food or play, Came to the mariners ' hollo ! ''In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud. It perched for vespers nine; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white moon-shine." 75 The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen. ' ' 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 ! ' ' PART II *'The Sun now rose upon the right: Out of the sea came he. Still hid in mist, and on the left 85 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 mariners' hollo! 9o 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 them- selves accom- plices In the crime. "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, 95 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. 100 THE ANCIENT MARINER 'T was right, said they, such birds to slay, That bring the fog and mist. The fair breeze continues; the ship enters the Pacific Ocean, and sails north- ward, even till it reaches the Line. ''The fair breeze blew^ the white foam flew, The furrow followed free; We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea. 105 The ship hath been suddenly becalmed. ''Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'T was sad as sad could be ; And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea! no And the Alba- tross begins to be avenged. "All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun, at noon. Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the Moon. "Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. "Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink ; Water, water, everywhere. Nor any drop to drink. "The very deep did rot: Christ! That ever this should be ! Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea. "About, about, in reel and rout The death-fires danced at night; 115 120 125 THE ANCIENT MARINER A Spirit had followed them; one of the in- visible inhabi- tants of this planet, neither departed souls nor angels: concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus. and the Platonic Constantino- polltan. Mi- chael Psellus, may be con- sulted. They are very nu- merous, and there is no cli- mate or ele- ment without one or more. The ship- mates, in their sore distress, would fain throw the whole guilt on the ancient , Mariner: in sign whereof they hang the dead sea-bird round his neck. The ancient Mariner be- holdeth a sign in the element afar off. The water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green, and blue and white. ''And some in dreams assured were Of the Spirit that plagued us so ; Nine fathom deep he had followed us From the land of mist and snow. ''And every tongue, through utter drought, Was withered at the root ; We could not speak, no more than if We had been choked with soot. " Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks Had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung." PART III "There passed a weary time. Each throat Was parched, and glazed each eye. A weary time! a weary time! How glazed each weary eye, When looking westward, I beheld A something in the sky. 130 135 140 145 "At first it seemed a little speck, And then it seemed a mist ; It moved and moved, and took at last A certain shape, I wist. 150 "A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! And still it neared and neared: THE ANCIENT MARINER As if it dodged a water-sprite, It plunged and tacked and veered. 155 At its nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship; and at a dear ran- som he freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst. A flash of joy; ''With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, We could nor laugh nor wail; Through utter drought all dumb we stood! I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, leo And cried, 'A sail! a sail!' ' ' With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, Agape they heard me call: Gramercy ! they for joy did grin, And all at once their breath drew in, i65 As they were drinking all. ' ' ' See ! see ! ' I cried, ' she tacks no more ! Hither to work us weal; And horror follows. For can it be a ship -.i , i-i that comes on- Witliout a breczc, witliout Q. tide, ward without wind or tide? She steadies with upright keel!' 170 *'The western wave w^as all a-flame : The day was w^ell nigh done! Almost upon the western wave Eested the broad bright Sun ; When that strange shape drove suddenly Betwixt us and the Sun. 175 It seemeth him but the skeleton of a ship. "And straight the Sun was flecked with bars, (Heaven's Mother send us grace!) As if through a dungeon-grate he peered With broad and burning face. iso ''Alas (thought I, and my heart beat loud) HoAV fast she nears and nears ! 10 THE ANCIENT MARINER Are those her sails that glance in the Sun, Like restless gossameres? And its ribs are ''Are those her ribs through which the Sun i85 seen as bars on the face of the setting- Sun. The Specter- Woman and her Death- mate, and no other on board the skeleton- ship. Like vessel, like crew! Did peer, as through a grate? And is that Woman all her crew? Is that a Death? and are there two? Is Death that woman's mate? ''Her lips were red, her looks were free. Her locks were yellow as gold : Her skin was as white as leprosy, The Night-mare Life-in-Death was she, Who thicks man's blood with cold. 190 Death and Life-in-Death have diced for the ship's crew, and she (the latter) winneth the ancient Mariner. "The naked hulk alongside came. And the twain were easting dice; ' The game is done ! I 've won ! I 've won ! ' Quoth she, and whistles thrice. 195 No twilight within the courts of the Sun. ' ' The Sun 's rim dips ; the stars rush out : At one stride comes the dark ; With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea. Off shot the specter-bark. 200 At the rising of the Moon, "We listened and looked sideways up! Fear at my heart, as at a cup, My life-blood seemed to sip ! 205 The stars were dim, and thick the night, The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white; From the sails the dew did drip — Till elomb above the eastern bar The horned IMoon, with one bright star 210 Within the nether tip. THE ANCIENT MARINER 11 One after another. His shipmates drop down dead. ''One after one, by the star-dogged Moon, Too quick for groan or sigh, Each turned his face with a ghastly pang. And cursed me with his eye. 215 "Four times fifty living men, (And I heard nor sigh nor groan) With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropped down one by one. But Life-in- Death begins her work on the ancient Mariner. ''The souls did from their bodies ily,- They fled to bliss or woe! And every soul, it passed me by, Like the whizz of my cross-bow ! ' ' 220 The Wedding- Guest feareth that a spirit is talking to him; PART IV "I fear thee, ancient Mariner! I fear thy skinny hand! And thou art long, and lank, and brown. As is the ribbed sea-sand. 225 But the ancient Mariner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance. '*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. 230 He despiseth the creatures of the calm, "The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I. 12 THE ANCIENT MARINER And onvielh that they should live, and so many lie dead. "I looked upon the rotting sea, And drew my eyes away; I looked upon the rotting deck, And there the dead men lay. 240 **I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; But or ever a prayer had gusht, A wicked whisper came, and made My heart as dry as dust. ''I closed my lids, and kept them close. And the balls like pulses beat ; For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky Lay like a load on my weary eye. And the dead were at my feet. 245 250 But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men. "The cold sweat melted from their limbs, Nor rot nor reek did they : The look with which they looked on me Had never passed away. ''An orphan's curse would drag to hell A spirit from on high ; But oh! more horrible than that Is a curse in a dead man 's eye ! Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, And yet I could not die. 256 260 In his loneli- ness and fixed- ness he yearn- eth towards the Journeying Moon, and the stars that still .sojourn, yet still move on- ward; and everywhere the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed ''The moving Moon went up the sky. And no where did abide: Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside — "Her beams bemocked the sultry main. Like April hoar-frost spread ; 26.5 THE ANCIENT MARINER 13 rest, and their native country and their own natural homes, which they enter unan- nounced, as lords that are certainly ex- pected, and yet there is a silent joy at their arrival. By the light of the Moon he beholdeth God's creatures of the great calm. But where the ship's huge shadow lay, The charmed water burnt alway 270 A still and awful red. '^ Beyond the shadow of the ship, I watched the water-snakes: They moved in tracks of shining white, And when they reared, the elfish light 275 Fell off in hoary flakes. "Within the shadow of the ship I watched their rich attire : Blue, glossy green, and velvet black. They coiled and swam; and every track "Was a flash of golden fire. 280 Their beauty and their happiness. He blesseth them in his heart. "0 happy living things! no tongue Their beauty might declare : A spring of love gushed from my heart, And I blessed them unaware ! Sure my kind saint took pity on me And I blessed them unaware. 285 The spell be- gins to break. ''The selfsame moment I could pray; And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea." 290 PART V ' ' Oh sleep ! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole! To Mary Queen the praise be given ! She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, That slid into my soul. 295 14 THE ANCIENT MARINER By grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is re- freshed with rain. *'The silly buckets on the deck, That had so long remained, I dreamt that they were filled with dew And when I awoke, it rained. 300 **My lips were wet, my throat was cold. My garments all were dank; Sure I had drunken in my dreams, And still my body drank. **I moved, and could not feel my limbs I was so light — almost I thought that I had died in sleep, And was a blessed ghost. 305 He heareth sounds and seeth strange sights and commotions in the sky and the element. **And soon I heard a roaring wind: It did not come anear; But with its sound it shook the sails. That were so thin and sere. 310 * * 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. 315 *'And the coming wind did roar more loud, And the sails did sigh like sedge; And the rain poured down from one black cloud The Moon was at its edge. 320 "The thick black cloud was cleft, and still The Moon was at its side : Like waters shot from some high crag, THE ANCIENT MARINER 15 The lightning fell with never a jag, 325 A river steep and wide. The bodies of **The loud wind never reached the ship, the ship's crew are inspired. Yet now the ship moved on! and the ship ^ moves on; Beneath the. lightning and the Moon The dead men gave a groan. 330 ''They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, Nor spake, nor moved their eyes ; It had been strange, even in a dream. To have seen those dead men rise. ''The helmsman steered, the ship moved on; 335 Yet never a breeze up blew; 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. 340 But not by the souls of the men, nor by demons of earth or middle air, but by a blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent down by the invocation of the guardian saint. "The body of my brother's son Stood by me, knee to knee: The body and I pulled at one rope, But he said nought to me." "I fear thee, ancient Mariner!" 345 "Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest! 'T was not those souls that fled in pain, Which to their corses came again, But a troop of spirits blest: ' ' For when it dawned— they dropped their arms, 35o And clustered round the mast ; Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths. And from their bodies passed. 16 THE ANCIENT MARINER ''Around, around, flew each sweet sound, Then darted to the Sun; Slowly the sounds came back again, Now mixed, now one by one. 355 *' Sometimes a-dropping from the sky I heard the skylark sing ; Sometimes all little birds that are, How they seemed to fill the sea and air With their sweet jargoning ! ' ' And now 't was like all instruments, Now like a lonely flute; And now it is an angel's song, That makes the heavens be mute. 365 "It ceased; yet still the sails made on A pleasant noise till noon, A noise like of a hidden brook In the leafy month of June, That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tunc. 370 "Till noon we quietly sailed on, Yet never a breeze did breathe : Slowly and smoothly went the ship, Moved onward from beneath. 375 The lonesome Spirit from the south pole carries on the ship as far as the Line, in obedience to the angelic troop, but still requireth ven seance. "Under the keel nine fathom deep, From the land of mist and snow, The spirit slid : and it was he That made the ship to go. The sails at noon left off their tune. And the ship stood still also. THE ANCIENT MARINER 17 ^'The Sun, right up above the mast, Had fixed her to the ocean : But in a minute she 'gan stir, With a short uneasy motion — Backwards and forwards half her length, With a short uneasy motion. 385 *'Then like a pawing horse let go. She made a sudden bound: It flung the blood into my head, And I fell down in a swound. The Polar Spirit's fellow demons, the invisible inhabi- tants of the element, take part in liis wron,^; and two of them relate, one to the other, that penance long and heavy for the ancient Mariner hath been accorded to the Polar Spirit, who returneth southward. "How long in that same fit I lay, I have not to declare ; But ere my living life returned, I heard, and in my soul discerned. Two voices in the air. ^' 'la it her quoth one, 'is this the man? By him who died on cross, With his cruel bow he laid full low The harmless Albatross. 395 I 400 " 'The Spirit who bideth by himself In the land of mist and snow^, He loved the bird that loved the man Who shot him w^ith his bow.' 405 ''The other was a softer voice, As soft as honey- dew : Quoth he, 'The man hath penance done, And penance more will do.' " 18 THE ANCIENT MARINER PART VI FIRST VOICE " 'But tell me, tell me! speak again, Thy soft response renewing — What makes that ship drive on so fast? What is the Ocean doing?' 410 SECOND VOICE *' * Still as a slave before his lord, The Ocean hath no blast ; His great bright eye most silently Up to the Moon is cast — 415 ^' 'If he may know which way to go; For she guides him smooth or grim. See, brother, see ! how graciously She looketh down on him.' 420 The Mariner hath been cast into a trance; for tlie angelic power causeth the vessel to drive north- ward, faster than human life could endure. FIRST VOICE " 'But Avhy drives on that ship so fast, Without or wave or wind?' SECOND VOICE " 'The air is cut away before, And closes from behind.' 425 " 'Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high! Or we shall be belated : For slow and slow that ship will go. When the Mariner's trance is abated.' The super- natural motion is retarded ". the Mariner "I woke, and we were sailing on As in a gentle weather: 430 THE ANCIENT MARINER 19 'T was night, calm night, the moon was high. The dead men stood together. ''All stood together on the deck, For a charnel-dungeon fitter: All fixed on me their stony eyes, That in the Moon did glitter. 435 ''The pang, the curse, with which they died, Had never passed away: I could not draw my eyes from theirs, 440 Nor turn them up to pray. ''And now this spell was snapt; once more I viewed the ocean green, And looked far forth, yet little saw Of what had else been seen — 445 "Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because, he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread. 450 "But soon there breathed a w4nd on me, Nor sound nor motion made: Its path was not upon the sea, In ripple or in shade. ' ' It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek Like a meadow-gale of spring — It mingled strangely with my fears, Yet it felt like a welcoming. 455 20 THE ANCIENT MARINER ' * Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, Yet she sailed softly too : Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze- On me alone it blew. 460 And the an- cient Mariner beholdeth his native country. ''Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed The lighthouse top I see? Is this the hill ? is this the kirk ? Is this mine own countree? 465 ''We drifted o'er the harbor-bar, And I with sobs did pray — '0 let me be awake, my God! Or let me sleep alway.' 470 "The harbor-bay was clear as glass, So smoothly it was strewTi ! And on the bay the moonlight lay, And the shadow of the Moon. 475 "The rock shone bright, the kirk no less. That stands above the rock: The moonlight steeped in silentness The steady weathercock. The angelic spirits leave the dead bodies. "And the bay was white with silent light Till, rising from the same. Full many shapes, that shadows were, In crimson colors came. 480 And appear in their own forms of liffht. "A little distance from the prow Those crimson shadows were: I turned my eyes upon the deck — Oh, Christ ! what saw I there ! THE ANCIENT MARINER 21 "Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat, And, by the holy rood ! A man all light, a seraph-man, 490 On every corse there stood. ''This seraph-band, each waved his hand: It was a heavenly sight! They stood as signals to the land, Each one a lovely light; 495 ''This seraph-band, each waved his hand. No voice did they impart — No voice ; but oh ! the silence sank Like music on my heart. "But soon I heard the dash of oars, 600 I heard the Pilot's cheer; My head was turned perforce away, And I saw a boat appear. "The Pilot and the Pilot's boy, I heard them coming fast : 505 Dear Lord in Heaven ! it was a joy The dead men could not blast. ' ' I saw a third — I heard his voice : It is the Hermit good! He singeth loud his goodly hymns 5io That he makes in the wood. He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away The Albatross's blood. THE ANCIENT MARINER PART vn The Hermit of ' ' Tlils Hemiit i^oocl livGs ill that wood the wood, ^ Which slopes down to the sea. How loudly his sweet voice he rears! He loves to talk with marineres That come from a far countree. 515 ''He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve — He hath a cushion plump : It is the moss that wholly hides The rotted old oak-stump. 520 ' ' The skiff-boat neared : I heard them talk, 'Why, this is strange, I trow! Where are those lights so many and fair, That signal made but now?' 525 Approacheth the ship with wonder. *' 'Strange, by my faith!' the Hermit said — 'And they answered not our cheer! The planks looked warped ! and see those sails, How thin they are and sere ! 530 I never saw aught like to them, Unless perchance it were " 'Brown skeletons of leaves that lag My forest-brook along; When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow, And the owlet Avhoops to the wolf below, That eats the she-wolf's young.' 535 " 'Dear Lord! it hath a fiendish look' — (The Pilot made reply,) 'I am a-f eared' — 'Push on, push on!' Said the Hermit cheerilv. 540 THE ANCIENT MARINER 23 "The boat came closer to the ship, But I nor spake nor stirred; The boat came close beneath the ship, And straight a sound was heard. 545 The ship suddenly sinketh. ''Under the water it rumbled on, Still louder and more dread: It reached the ship, it split the bay, The ship went down like lead. The ancient Mariner is saved in the Pilot's boat. "Stunned by that loud and dreadful sound, Which sky and ocean smote, Like one that hath been seven days drowned, My body lay afloat ; But swift as dreams, myself I found Within the Pilot's boat. 550 555 ^'Upon the whirl, where sank the ship. The boat spun round and round ; And all was still, save that the hill Was telling of the sound. ''I moved my lips— the Pilot shrieked, And fell down in a fit ; The holy Hermit raised his eyes, And prayed where he did sit. "I took the oars: the Pilot's boy. Who now doth crazy go, Laughed loud and long, and all the while His eyes went to and fro. 'Ha! ha!' quoth he, 'full plain I see, The Devil knows how to row.' 560 665 l 24 THE ANCIENT MARINER "And now, all in my own coimtree, I stood on the firm land! The Hermit stepped forth from the boat, And scarcely he could stand. 570 The ancient Mariner ear- nestly entreat- eth the Hermit to shrieve him; and the penance of life falls on him. '* '0 shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man!' The Hermit crossed his brow. ' Say quick, ' quoth he, ' I bid thee say — "What manner of man art thou?' 575 "Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched With a woful agony, Which forced me to begin my tale ; And then it left me free. '* Since then, at an uncertain hour, That agony returns : And ever and anon through- out his future life an agony wm to^tmvei And till my ghastly tale is told, from land to ^, . , . , . , land. This heart withm me burns. 585 "I pass, like night, from land to land; I have strange power of speech ; That moment that his face I see, I know the man that must hear me : To him my tale I teach. 590 "What loud uproar bursts from that door! The wedding-guests are there ; But in the garden-bower the bride And bride-maids singing are: And hark the little vesper bell, 595 Which biddeth me to prayer! **0 Wedding-Guest! this soul hath boon Alone on a wide, wide sea: THE ANCIENT MARINER So lonely 't was, that God himself Scarce seemed there to be. 25 600 ''0 sweeter than the marriage-feast, 'T is sweeter far to me, To walk together to the kirk With a goodly company! — "To walk together to the kirk, And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends Old men, and babes, and loving friends, And youths and maidens gay ! 605 And to teach, by his own example, love and reverence to all things that God made and loveth. ' ' Farewell, farewell ! but this I tell To thee, thou Wedding-Guest! He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast. 610 ''He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all." 615 The Mariner, whose eye is bright, Whose beard with age is hoar. Is gone : and now the Wedding-Guest Turned from the bridegroom's door. 620 He went like one that hath been stunned. And is of sense forlorn: A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn. 625 NOTES [The numbers refer to lines in the text] In 1765 Bishop Percy published his "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry" — a collection of old ballads once popular in England, but in danger of being quite forgotten because not preserved in print. His book was received with such interest as to create anew a taste for those quaint verse-stories, composed in the olden days partly by the people themselves and partly by the minstrels who wandered from place to place, singing and reciting the traditional history of their land. This ballad-revival inspired many poets of the time to try their hand at ballad-writing. Among those who felt the keenest interest in the revival were Coleridge and his close friend William Wordsworth, who published in 1798 a volume entitled "Lyrical Ballads." The purpose and scope of this work are stated in Coleridge's "Biographia Literaria" (Chapter XIV) : "During the first year that Mr. Wordsworth and I were neighbours, our conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination. The sudden charm, which accidents of light and shade, which moonlight or sunset, diffused over a known and familiar landscape, appeared to represent the practicability of combining both. These are the poetry of nature. The thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, the incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural ; and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have been to every human being wlio, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life; the characters and incidents were to be such as will be found in every village and its vicinity where there is a meditative and feeling mind to seek after them, or to notice them when they present themselves. "In this idea originated the plan of the 'Lyrical Ballads,' in which it was agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and charac- ters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of dis- belief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and wonders of the world before us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which, in consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude, we have eyes, yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither feel nor understand. With this view I wrote 'The Ancient Mariner.' " 26 THE ANCIENT MARINER 27 The immediate cause for the writing of this poem has been told by Wordsworth, who in the autumn of 1798, with his sister and Coleridge, took a walking-trip to Linton and the Valley of Stones: "As our united funds were very small, we agreed to defray the expense of the tour by writing a poem, to be sent to the ISlew Monthly Magazine. Accordingly we set off . . . and in the course of this walk was planned the poem of 'The Ancient Mariner/ . . . We began the composition together on that, to me, memorable evening. . . . As we endeavoured to pro- ceed conjointly (I speak of the same evening) our respective manners proved so widely different that it would have been quite presumptuous in me to do anything but separate from an undertaking upon which I could only have been a clog. . . . 'The Ancient Mariner' grew and grew till it became too important for our first object, which was limited to our expectation of five pounds ; and we began to think of a volume, which was to consist, as Mr. Coleridge has told the world, of poems chiefly on super- natural subjects, taken from common life, but looked at, as much as might be, through an imaginative medium." "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, In Seven Parts," appeared anony- mously in "Lyrical Ballads" the following year. While not a ballad in the strictest sense of the word, the poem carries out the ballad idea in its structure and details; in the extreme simplicity of its style and diction, and in the employment of devices common to ballad poetry. These last are pointed out as they occur, in the notes which follow. As it originally appeared, it was full of archaic words, phrases, and spellings, most of which were discarded by the poet later, and comprised a number of stanzas he afterward omitted. It is not to our purpose to consider all his changes: the poem is given here as he left it after many thorough revisions. Rime: rhyme. The former spelling is correct, etymologically, and is now used by many writers in place of the latter. Facile credo, etc. This motto, from Thomas Burnet's "Archaelologiae Philosophicse," prefaced the poem for the first time in "Sibylline Leaves," in 1817. In the Mead and Toxton edition of 1736 the translation is given thus: "I can easily believe that there are more Invisible than Visible beings in the Universe. But who will declare to us the family of all these, and acquaint us with the Agreements, Differences, and peculiar Talents which are to be found among them? . . . It is true. Human Wit has always desired a knowledge of these things, though it has never yet attained it. I will own that it is very profitable, sometimes to contemplate in the Mind, as in a Draught, the Image of the greater and better World; lest the Soul, being accustomed to the Trifles of this present Life, should contract itself too much, and altogether rest in mean Cogitations; but, in the mean Time, we must take Care to keep to the Truth, and observe Moderation, that we may distinguish Certain from Uncertain Things, and Day from Night." Glosses. As the poem originally appeared, there were no marginal readings, these being added in 1817. In the first edition the poem was preceded by an Argument, which in the second was a good deal enlarged and read thus: "How a Ship having first sailed to the Equator, was driven by storms, to the cold Country towards the South Pole; how the Ancient Mariner, cruelly, and in contempt of the laws of hospitality, killed a Sea-bird; and how he was followed by many strange Judgments; and 28 THE ANCIENT MARINER in what manner lie came back to his own Country." After the second edition this Argument was discarded altogether by the poet. 1. It is. This abrupt form of introduction — in which the speaker is merely suggested — is found in many of the old ballads. 2. one of three. Note how much more effective the tale is made by the part played by the Wedding-Guest, with his unwillingness to listen; the fascination the Ancient Mariner gains over him, until he is fairly spellbound; his occasional interruptions, showing the effect upon him of the old man's words and appearance. 5. The Bridegroom's doors, etc. The weirdness of the Mariner's tale is heightened by the references, here and there, to the natural, common- place details of the wedding. 8. May'st hear, etc. "Thou" is understood here. The dropping of the subject emphasizes the impatience of the Wedding-Guest to be gone. 9-20. He holds, etc. Note the effectiveness of the contrast between the merriment of the wedding-feast and the horror the Mariner excites in the Wedding-Guest. 12. Eftsoons (from the Anglo-Saxon words aeft, afterward, and sona, soon): immediately, forthwith. (Archaic.) 15-16. And listens, etc. Wordsworth suggested these two lines. 21-50. The ship was cheered, etc. William Watson, in his "Excursions in Criticism," says: "There is perhaps something rather inartistic in his undignified haste to convey us to the aesthetically necessary region. In some half-dozen stanzas, beginning with 'The ship was cleared,' we find ourselves crossing the line and driven far towards the Southern Pole." This very haste in the narrative, like the abruptness with w^hich the old man begins his tale (line 10), indicates the narrator's intense earnestness and the necessity he feels of telling his story at once after he has gained the attention of the Wedding-Guest (from line 21 on). 22. drop: sail tow^ard the sea. 23. kirk: church. This dialect word, used to carry out the ballad idea, is not really appropriate here, as we see later that the Mariner is a Roman Catholic and as such he would hardly have used the word. 25. upon the left. That is, the ship was sailing south. 30. over the mast at noon. At viiiat point would the sun be directly above the ship at noon, as he is about to describe it? 35. Nodding their heads. But the singular form of the verb is used. This lack of agreement, like the lack of coherence of tenses, is charac- teristic of ballad poetry. 36. minstrelsy: musicians. 39-40. And thus, etc. See lines 19 and 20. This sort of repetition is a device common to the old ballads. 40. The bright-eyed Mariner. Notice how vivid a picture is given merely by the use of such phrases as "long gray beard," "glittering eye," "skinny hand," "gray-beard loon," "bright-eyed Mariner." No detailed description of "the ancient man" could have given us a clearer picture of him. 41. Storm-blast. There are several of these pleonastic compounds in the poem. Storm and blast are one and the same here. 46. As who pursued. "One" and "is" are understood here. THE ANCIENT MARINER 29 47. Still: constantly. Treads the shadow of his foe conveys the idea of being very closely followed. Supposing the pursuer to be between the pursued and the sun, his shadow would extend toward the pursued, who could not be touched by it unless the pursuer were close upon him. 55. drifts: drifting clouds of mist, clifts: cliffs; that is, icebergs. 57. ken: see. 62. swound: swoon; faint. (Archaic.) 63. Albatross. Wordsworth tells us that he himself suggested to Coleridge the killing of the albatross. He says: "Some crime was to be committed which should bring upon the old navigator, as Coleridge always delighted to call him, the spectral persecution, as a consequence of that crime, and his own wanderings. I had been reading in Shelvock's Voyages a day or two before, that while doubling Cape Horn they frequently saw albatrosses in that latitude, the largest of sea fowl, some extending their wings twelve or fifteen feet. 'Suppose,' said I, 'you represent him as having killed one of these birds upon entering the South Sea, and that the tutelary spirits of those regions take upon them to avenge the crime?' The inci- dent was thought fit for the purpose and adopted accordingly." 64. thorough. In olden times the same word as "through." We meet with it frequently in Shakespeare and other early English poets. 67. eat (pronounced et) : eaten. Now archaic as the past participle of the verb "to eat." 76. vespers: literally, the hour of evening prayer in the Roman Catho- lic Church. Here the expression means, simply, "evenings." 77. Whiles. Archaic form of "while." fog-smoke. See note on line 41. 79. God save thee. See note on line 2. This interruption greatly intensifies the gruesomeness of the Mariner's tale. 83. The Sun now rose upon the right because the ship was sailing north. See line 25. 97. Nor . . . nor: neither . . . nor. "But" is understood before like. Head is used here for "face." See Matt. XVII. 2., and Rev. I. 16. 98. uprist. In olden times commonly used for "uprose." 104. followed free. This is 'the original reading. In a later edition the poet made it "streamed off free," saying of the other phrase: "I had not been long on board a ship before I perceived that this was the image as seen by the spectator from the shore, or from another vessel." Later, however, he restored the original reading. 125. slimy things. Coleridge had used this idea in his "Destiny of Nations" : As what time after long and pestful calms, With slimy shapes and miscreated life Poisoning the vast Pacific, etc. 128. death-fires. Perhaps the reference is to the phosphorescent lights to be seen at sea on the surface of the water and in the rigging of vessels; but probably he meant similar lights which once were supposed to appear over dead bodies, or in houses where a death was to occur. In his "Ode on the Departing Year" we read: Mighty armies of the dead Dance, like death-fires, round her tomb. 30 THE ANCIENT MARINER 129. like a witch's oils. Oils, that is, which burn with a weird and lurid light. 131. Gloss. Josephus: a noted Jewish historian who lived in the first century A. D. Michael Sellus was a Byzantine philosopher of the eleventh century, among whose writings is a "Dialogue on the Operation of Demons." 142. About my neck. Notice that Parts I, II, IV, and VI end with an allusion to tlie albatross. 152. I wist. Wist means "know." Coleridge uses I wist here, however, in the sense of "iwis," an archaic word meaning "certainly." 164. Gramercy (from the Old French grand merci, many thanks) is used here, as often in early English poetry, merely as an exclamation of surprise, not as an expression of gratitude. 169. without a breeze. The idea of a phantom ship is, of course, not original Avith Coleridge; we have it in the story of the Flying Dutchman and various other tales, ancient and modern. Wordsworth tells us that Coleridge patterned his after one seen by a friend of his in a dream. But, wherever he got the idea, his phantom ship is quite different from those of other stories, 178. Heaven's Mother: the Virgin Mary. See note on line 23. 184. gossameres: fine cobwebs. 185. her ribs. The first and second editions of "The Ancient Mariner" had the two following stanzas here: Are those her naked ribs, which fleck'd The sun that did behind them peer? And are those two all, all the crew, That woman and her fleshless Pheere? His bones are black with many a crack. All black and bare, I ween; Jet-black and bare, save where with rust Of mouldy damps and charnel crust They 're patched with purple and green. 197. I've won! Life-in-Death wins the Ancient ^lariner, while the rest of the crew belong to Death. 198. thrice. Three is one of the mystical numbers used in charms. The student will recall the witches' incantations in "Macbeth": Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine. And thrice again to make up nine: — Peace! — the charm's wound up. In the first edition this stj\nza (lines 195-198) was followed by: A grust of wind sterte up behind And whistled thro* his bones; Thro' the holes of his tyos and the hole of his mouth. Half-whistles and half-groans. 199. Gloss, courts of the Sun. That is, the tropics. 200. At one stride. Any one wlio has been in tropical or semitropical countries can appreciate the aptness of this expression. 209. clomb: climbed. (Archaic.) 210-211. one bright star, etc. Originally this read "almost atween the tips," but later the poet substituted the reading given here, adding this note: "It is a common superstition among sailors that something evil THE ANCIENT MARINER 31 is about to happen whenever a star dogs the moon." James Dykes Camp- bell gives this note in his edition of Coleridge's poems, with the comment: "But no sailor ever saw a star within the nether tip of a horned moon." 222-223. every soul, etc. It was once believed that the soul might be heard leaving the body of a person who had just died. 223. my cross-bow. The mention of this weapon places the date of the Mariner's story before the sixteenth century, as cross-bows were not used later. 224-229. I fear thee. See notes on lines 2 and 79. "With what con- summate art are we left to imagine the physical traces which the Mariner's long agony had left behind it, by a method far more terrible than any direct description — the effect, namely, which the sight of him produces upon others. — Traill's "Life of Coleridge." 226-227. And thou art long, etc. Wordsworth suggested these two lines. 245. or ere: ere, before. (Archaic.) 261. seven days, seven nights. Seven, like three, has always been considered a mystic number, 273. water-snakes. Brandl tells us that Coleridge seems to have taken great interest in such reptiles, his notebook covering the period in which he wrote "The Ancient Mariner" having contained "long paragraphs upon the alligators, boas, and crocodiles of antediluvian times." 285. I blessed them. His hard, rebellious heart is softened and imme- diately the curse is diminished. 290-291. The Albatross fell off, etc. This is the turning-point of the story. 294. Mary Queen: the Virgin Mary. See note on line 33. 297. silly: frail, weak; here, useless. 314. fire-flags. A reference, undoubtedly, to the Northern Lights. Hearne wrote in 1795: "In still nights I have frequently heard them make a rustling and crackling noise, like the waving of a large flag in a fresh gale of wind." Coleridge, who is known to have read Hearne's book, may have had this description in mind, sheen is used here, as once commonly, as an adjective to mean "bright." See line 56. 349-366. a troop of spirits blest. Contrast this with the previous description of the dead men, lines 331-344, 407. honey-dew: a sweet, sticky substance found on plants, supposed to be the food of fairies. 435. charnel-dungeon : a vault in which dead bodies are placed. 464-467. dream of joy! See lines 21-24. 467. countree. This archaic form of "country" is frequently used in ballads. 472. Harbor-bay. See note on line 41, 489. rood: cross. By "holy rood," of course, is meant the cross on which Christ was crucified. In olden times it was not considered wrong to swear by sacred objects and names. 512. shrieve (shrive) : to hear confession and grant absolution, 523. skiff-boat. See note on line 41. 524. trow: think. 535. ivy-tod: ivy bush or clump of ivy. (Dialect.) 560-569. the Pilot shrieked. See note on lines 224-229. 32 THE ANCIENT MARINER 575. crossed his brow. That is, made upon it the sign of the cross, to avert any evil influence which the Mariner might seek to exert. See note on line 23 and line 294. 582-590. since then, etc. We have seen how (lines 287-291) the curse was diminished, but as the spirit said (in lines 408-409), the Mariner must continue to do penance for his sin. I know the man, etc. See line 18. 591-596. What loud uproar, etc. The same device of contrast is used here — to heighten the eff"ect of the Mariner's words — as was used in the opening stanzas of the poem. See note on lines 9-20. 612-617. He prayeth well, etc. A friend of the poet once told him that she admired "The Ancient Mariner" very much, but that it had two faults — it was improbable and it had no moral. "As for the probability," Coleridge says, "I owned that that might admit some question; but as. to the want of a moral, I told her that in my own judgment the poem had too much; and that the only, or chief fault, if I might say so, was the obtrusion of the moral sentiment so openly on the reader as a principle or cause of action in a work of such pure imagination. It ought to have had no more moral than the Arabian Nights' tale of the merchant's sitting down to eat dates by the side of a well, and throwing the shells aside, and lo! a genie starts up, and says he must kill the aforesaid merchant, because one of the date shells had, it seems, put out the eye of the genie's son." — Table Talk. 623. of sense forlorn: bereft of his senses. 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