IV + 

“I fear thee, ancient Mariner! + 

I fear thy skinny hand; + 

And thou art long and lank and brown + 

As is the ribbed Sea-sand. + 

I fear thee and thy glittering eye + 

And thy skinny hand so brown”⁠— + 

“Fear not, fear not, thou wedding-guest! + 

This body dropt not down. + 

Alone, alone, all all alone, + 

Alone on the wide wide Sea; + 

And Christ would take no pity on + 

My soul in agony. + 

The many men so beautiful, + 

And they all dead did lie! + 

And a million million slimy things + 

Lived on⁠—and so did I. + 

I looked upon the rotting Sea, + 

And drew my eyes away; + 

I looked upon the ghastly deck, + 

And there the dead men lay. + 

I looked 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, + 

Till 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 looked on me, + 

Had never passed away. + 

An orphan’s curse would drag to Hell + 

A spirit from on high: + 

But O! 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 no where did abide: + 

Softly she was going up + 

And a star or two beside⁠— + 

Her beams bemocked 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 watched the water-snakes: + 

They moved in tracks of shining white; + 

And when they reared, the elfish light + 

Fell off in hoary flakes. + 

Within the shadow of the ship + 

I watched their rich attire: + 

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black + 

They coiled 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 gusht from my heart, + 

And I blessed them unaware! + 

Sure my kind saint took pity on me, + 

And I blessed them unaware. + 

The self-same moment I could pray; + 

And from my neck so free + 

The Albatross fell off, and sank + 

Like lead into the sea. + 