THE ANCIENT MARINER. 159 



" 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 s wound ! 



" Alone, alone, all, all alone, 



Alone on a wide, wide sea ! 

 And never a saint took pity on 



My soul in agony. 



" I closed my lips, 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 reck did they ; 

 The look with which they looked on me 



Had never passed away. 



" All stood together on the deck, 



For a charnel dungeon fitter ; 

 All fixed on me their stony eyes, 



That in the moon did glitter. 



*' But soon I heard the dash of oars, 



I heard the pilot's cheer; 

 My head was turned perforce away, 



And I saw a boat appear. 



44 The pilot and the pilot's boy, 



I heard them coming fast ! 

 I )i -ar Lord in heaven ! it was a joy 



The dead men could not bl 



