‘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 look’d on me Had never pass’d away.
‘An orphan’s curse would drag to Hell A spirit from on high; But oh! more horrible than that Is the 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 nowhere did abide: Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside— Her beams bemock’d the sultry main, Like April hoar-frost spread; But where the ship’s huge shadow lay, The charmèd 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 rear’d, 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 coil’d 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 gush’d from my heart, And I bless’d them unaware! Sure my kind saint took pity on me, And I bless’d 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.’
PART V ‘Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole! To Mary Queen the praise be given! She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, That slid into my soul.