‘The silly buckets on the deck, That had so long remain’d, I dreamt that they were fill’d with dew; And when I awoke, it rained.
‘My lips were wet, my throat was cold, My garments all were dank; Sure I had drunken in my dreams, And still my body drank.
‘I moved, and could not feel my limbs: I was so light—almost I thought that I had died in sleep, And was a blessed ghost.
‘And soon I heard a roaring wind: It did not come anear; But with its sound it shook the sails, That were so thin and sere.
‘The upper air burst into life! And a hundred fire-flags sheen, To and fro they were hurried about! And to and fro, and in and out, The wan stars danced between.
‘And the coming wind did roar more loud, And the sails did sigh like sedge; And the rain pour’d down from one black cloud, The Moon was at its edge.
‘The thick black cloud was cleft and still, The Moon was at its side: Like waters shot from some high crag, The lightning fell with never a jag, A river steep and wide.
‘The loud wind never reached the ship, Yet now the ship moved on! Beneath the lightning and the moon The dead men gave a groan.
‘They groan’d, they stirred, they all uprose, Nor spake, nor moved their eyes; It had been strange, even in a dream, To have seen those dead men rise.
‘The helmsman steered, the ship moved on, Yet never a breeze up blew; The mariners all ’gan work the ropes, Where they were wont to do; They raised their limbs like lifeless tools— We were a ghastly crew.