54 THE BOOK OF BIRDS 



Some of you know in what a wonderful way Coleridge 

 wove this idea into his poem. He shows the little ship 

 beset with ice and mist in the South Polar Seas, when, like 

 a messenger of hope, the bird came sailing past. 



"At length did cross an Albatross: 

 Thorough the fog it came : 

 As if it had been a Christian soul, 

 We hail'd 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 steer'd us through. 



And a good south wind sprung up beliind; 



The Albatross did follow, 

 And every day, for food or play. 



Came to the mariners' hollo ! " 



Wantonly the Mariner shot the bird, and then slowly but 

 surely ill-luck began to dog the ship. She ran north- 

 ward into a tropic calm, and the horrors of thirst under a 

 burning sun turned the thoughts of the crew to the killing 

 of the innocent sea-bird, which had brought such a 

 judgment upon them all. 



"Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks 

 Had I from old and young ! 

 Instead of the cross, the Albatross 

 About my neck was hung." 



So through the dreadful days and stifling nights he does 

 penance for his crime till his hard heart grows soft with 

 love and sympathy, and even in his pain he blesses the 

 very water-snakes that he has been watching at play below 

 in the shadow of the ship : — 



"A spring of love gush'd from my heart, 

 And I bless'd them unaware ! 



