Dear Lord! it has a fiendish look

(The pilot made reply)

I am a-feared.'' Push on, push on!'

Said the Hermit cheerily.

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.

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.

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.

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 lor.g, and all the while

His eyes went to and fro,

Ha! ha!' quoth he- full plain I see,

The devil knows how to row.'

And now all in mine own countrée

I stood on the firm land!

The Hermit stepped forth from the boat,
And scarcely he could stand.

'O shrieve me, shrieve me, holy Man !' The Hermit crossed his brow.

Say quick,' quoth he, I bid thee say

What manner man art thou?'

Forthwith this frame of mind was wrenched

With a woeful agony,

Which forced me to begin my tale,

And then it left me free.

Since then, at an uncertain hour

That agony returns;

And till my ghastly tale is told

This heart within me burns.

I pass, like night, from land to land;

I have strange power of speech; The moment that his face I see

I know the man that must hear me ;

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

Which biddeth me to prayer.

O wedding-guest! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide wide sea:

So lonely 'twas, that God himself

Scarce seemed there to be.

O sweeter than the marriage-feast,

'Tis 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,

Farewell, farewell! But this I tell
To thee, thou wedding-guest!

He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small:
For the dear God, who loveth us,

He made and loveth all."