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. "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 charmed water burnt alway A still and awful red. "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. "O happy living things! no tongue Their beauty might declare: A spring of love gush'd from my heart, And I blessed them unaware! Sure my kind saint took pity on me, And I blessed them unaware. "The selfsame moment I could pray, And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea." 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. "The silly buckets on the deck, That had so long remained, I dreamt that they were fill'd with dew; And when I awoke it rain'd. "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 reach'd the ship, Yet now the ship moved on! Beneath the lightning and the moon The dead men gave a groan. "They groan'd, they- stirr'd, they all uprose, Nor spake, nor moved their eyes; It had been strange, even in a dream,