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. The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I. And envieth that they should live, and so many lie dead. I look'd upon the rotting sea, And drew my eyes away; I look'd upon the rotting deck, And there the dead men lay. I look'd 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. 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. In his loneliness and fixedness he yearneth towards the journeying Moon, and the stars that still sojourn, yet still move onward; and everywhere the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed rest and their native country and their own natural homes, which they enter unannounced, as lords that are certainly expected, and yet there is a silent joy at their arrival. 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 charmed water burnt alway A still and awful red. By the light of the Moon he beholdeth God's creatures of the great calm. Beyond the shadow of the ship, I watch'd 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 watch'd their rich attire: Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, They coil'd and swam; and every track Was a flash of golden fire. Their beauty and their happiness. 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. He blesseth them in his heart. The spell begins to break. The selfsame moment I could pray; And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea. PART V 'O 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. By grace of the holy Mother, the ancient Mariner is refreshed with rain.