And hopes, and fears that kindle hope,
An undistinguishable throng;

And gentle wishes long subdued,
Subdued and cherish'd long!

She wept with pity and delight,

She blush'd with love and virgin shame;
And, like the murmur of a dream,
I heard her breathe my name.

Her bosom heaved-she stept aside;
As conscious of my look, she stept-
Then suddenly, with timorous eye,
She fled to me and wept.

She half enclosed me with her arms,
She press'd me with a meek embrace;
And, bending back her head, look'd up
And gazed upon my face.

'Twas partly love, and partly fear,
And partly 't was a bashful art
That I might rather feel, than see,
The swelling of her heart.

I calm'd her fears; and she was calm, And told her love with virgin pride; And so I won my Genevieve,

My bright and beauteous Bride!

"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

"The bridegroom's doors are open wide,

And I am next of kin ;

The guests are met, the feast is set:

May'st hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand,

"There was a ship," quoth he.

"Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"

Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

He holds him with his glittering eye

The wedding guest stood still,

And listens like a three years' child:

The mariner hath his will.

The wedding guest sat on a stone:

He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man

The bright-eyed mariner.

The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the lighthouse top.

The sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he!

And he shone bright, and on the right

Went down into the sea.

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The wedding guest here beat his breast,

For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her goes

The merry minstrelsy.

The wedding guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed mariner.

And now the storm-blast came, and he

Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

With sloping masts and dipping prow.
As who pursued with yell and blow

Still treads the shadow of his foe,

And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, And southward aye we fled.

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold :

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,

As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts

Did send a dismal sheen :

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken

The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around:

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled; Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross an albatross,

Through the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul,

We hailed it in God's name.

It ate the food it ne'er had eat,

And round and round it flew,
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;

The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;

The albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,

Came to the mariner's hollo!