"'The air is cut away before,
And closes from behind. 425
"'Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high!
Or we shall be belated:
For slow and slow that ship will go,
When the Mariner's trance is abated.'
"I woke, and we were sailing on 430
As in a gentle weather:
'T was night, calm night, the moon was high;
The dead men stood together.
"All stood together on the deck,
For a charnel-dungeon[52] fitter: 435
All fixed on me their stony eyes,
That in the Moon did glitter.
"The pang, the curse, with which they died,
Had never passed away;
I could not draw my eyes from theirs, 440
Nor turn them up to pray.
"And now this spell was snapped: once more
I viewed the ocean green,
And looked far forth, yet little saw
Of what had else been seen— 445
"Like one that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend 450
Doth close behind him tread.
"But soon there breathed a wind on me,
Nor sound nor motion made;
Its path was not upon the sea,
In ripple or in shade. 455
"It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek,
Like a meadow-gale of spring—
It mingled strangely with my fears,
Yet it felt like a welcoming.
"Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, 460
Yet she sailed softly too:
Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze—
On me alone it blew.