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The Bride hath pac'd into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry Minstralsy.

The wedding-guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot chuse but hear:
And thus spake on that ancyent Man,
The bright-eyed Marinere.

Listen, Stranger! Storm and Wind,
A Wind and Tempest strong!
For days and weeks it play'd us freaks---
Like chaff we drove along.

Listen, Stranger! mist and snow,
And it grew wond'rous cauld:
And ice mast-high came floating by
As green as Emerauld.

'And thro' the drifts the snowy clifts 'Did send a dismal sheen;

'Ne shapes of men ne beasts we ken'The ice was all between.

'The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around:

'It crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd and howl'd Like noises of a swound.

• At length did cross an Albatross,

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Thorough the fog it came;

And an it were a Christian Soul, 'We hail'd it in God's name.

The marineres gave it biscuit worms,
And round and round it flew;
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steer'd us thro'.

• And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did follow;

And every day for food or play
"Came to the Marinere's hollo!

In mist or cloud on mast or shroud
It perch'd for vespers nine,

Whiles all the night thro' fog smoke-white • Glimmer'd the white moonshine,'

"God save thee, ancyent Marinere!

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"From the Fiends that plague thee thusWhy look'st thou so?"-"With my cross

bow

'I shot the Albatross !'

II.

The sun came up upon the right, 'Out of the sea came he;

And broad as a weft upon the left

'Went down into the sea.

And the good south wind still blew behind, 'But no sweet bird did follow, 'Ne any day for food or play

Came to the Marinere's hollo!

'And I had done an hellish thing
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averr'd, I had kill'd the bird
'That made the breeze to blow.

Ne dim ne red, like God's own head

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The glorious sun uprist:

Then all averr'd, I had kill'd the bird

'That brought the fog and mist.

"'Twas right (said they) such birds to slay That bring the fog and mist."

VOL. I. B 2.

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The breezes blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow follow'd free:

"We were the first that ever burst

'Into that silent sea..

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, ''Twas sad as sad could be,

And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea.

• All in a hot and copper sky The bloody sun at noon,

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Right up above the mast did stand, "No bigger than the moon.

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, ne breath ne motion,

As idle as a painted ship

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Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink,

'Water, water, every where, 'Ne any drop to drink.

'The very deeps did rot: O 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 danc'd at night; 'The water, like a witch's oils,

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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 thro' utter drouth 'Was wither'd 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.

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