Whose pines, scarce travelled by the breeze above,Had made one murmur with the distant surge!
Yes, while I stood and gazed, my temples bare,
And shot my being through earth, sea, and air,
Possessing all things with intensest love,
O Liberty! my spirit felt thee there.
LYRICAL BALLADS, WITH A FEW OTHER POEMS (1798)
THE RIME OF THE ANCYENT MARINERE
GOODY BLAKE, AND HARRY GILL, A TRUE STORY
SIMON LEE, THE OLD HUNTSMAN, WITH AN INCIDENT IN WHICH HE WAS CONCERNED
ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS SHEWING HOW THE ART OF LYING MAY BE TAUGHT
LINES WRITTEN NEAR RICHMOND, UPON THE THAMES, AT EVENING
THE TABLES TURNED; AN EVENING SCENE, ON THE SAME SUBJECT
OLD MAN TRAVELLING; ANIMAL TRANQUILLITY AND DECAY, A SKETCH
THE COMPLAINT OF A FORSAKEN INDIAN WOMAN
THE RIME OF THE ANCYENT MARINERE
IN SEVEN PARTS
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
ARGUMENT.
How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by Storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.
I.
It is an ancyent Marinere,
And he stoppeth one of three:
“By thy long grey beard and thy glittering eye
”Now wherefore stoppest me?
“The Bridegroom’s doors are open’d wide
”And I am next of kin;
“The Guests are met, the Feast is set, —
”May’st hear the merry din. —
But still he holds the wedding-guest —
There was a Ship, quoth he —
“Nay, if thou’st got a laughsome tale,
”Marinere! come with me.”
He holds him with his skinny hand,
Quoth he, there was a Ship —
“Now get thee hence, thou greybeard Loon!
”Or my Staff shall make thee skip.”
He holds him with his glittering eye —
The wedding guest stood still
And listens like a three year’s child;
The Marinere hath his will.
The wedding-guest sate on a stone,
He cannot chuse but hear:
And thus spake on that ancyent man,
The bright-eyed Marinere.
The Ship was cheer’d, the Harbour clear’d —
Merrily did we drop
Below the Kirk, below the Hill,
Below the Lighthouse top.
The
