One after one by the horned Moon (Listen, O Stranger! to me)

Each turn'd his face with a ghastly pang

And curs'd me with his ee.

Four times fifty living men,

With never a sigh or groan,

With heavy thump, a lifeless lump
They dropp'd down one by one.

Their souls did from their bodies fly,They fled to bliss or woe;

And every soul it pass'd me by,

Like the whiz of my Cross-bow.

IV.

"I fear thee, ancient Mariner !

"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 brownFear not, fear not, thou wedding guest! This body dropt not down.

Alone, alone, all all alone

Alone on the wide wide Sea;

And Christ would take no pity on

My soul in agony.

The many men so beautiful,

And they all dead did Jie !

And a million million slimy things
Liv'd on-and so did I.

I look'd upon the rotting Sea,
And drew my eyes away;

I look'd upon the ghastly 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 made
My 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 sky

Lay like a load on my weary eye,

And the dead were at my

feet.

The cold sweat melted from their limbs,

Nor rot, nor reek did they;

The look with which they look'd on me,

Had never pass'd away.

An orphan's curse would drag to Hell
A spirit from on high:

But O! more horrible than that

Is the curse in a dead man's eye!

Seven days, seven nights I saw that curse, And yet I could not die.

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 bemock'd the sultry main
Like April hoar-frost spread;

But where the ship's huge shadow lay,
The charmed water burnt alway

A still and awful red.

Beyond the shadow of the ship
I watch'd the water-snakes :

They mov'd in tracks of shining white;
And when they rear'd, the elfish light

Fell off in hoary flakes.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watch'd their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black

They coil'd and swam; and every track

Was a flash of golden fire.