"I fear thee, ancient Mariner!
       I fear thy skinny hand!
       And thou art long, and lank, and brown,
       As is the ribbed sea-sand.
       "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.
       The many men, so beautiful!
       And they all dead did lie:
       And a thousand thousand slimy things
       Lived on; and so did I
       I looked upon the rotting sea,
       And drew my eyes away;
       I looked upon the rotting deck,
       And there the dead men lay.
       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.
       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.
       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;
       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 watched the water-snakes:
       They moved in tracks of shining white,
       And when they reared, the elfish light
       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.
       O 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.
       The self same moment I could pray;
       And from my neck so free
       The Albatross fell off, and sank
       Like lead into the sea.