The Wedding-Guest feareth that a spirit is talking to him;
I fear thee and thy glittering eye,
And thy skinny hand, so brown.'—
But the ancient Mariner assureth him of his bodily life, and proceedeth to relate his horrible penance.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.
He despiseth the creatures of the calm,
And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead.
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.
But the curse liveth for him in the eye of the dead men.
An orphan's curse would drag to Hell
A spirit from on high;
But oh! more horrible than that