And the rain poured 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.
4. Simple, homely. describing the Aurora Australis, or Southern 5. Shone. These fire-flags are probably St. Elmo's Lights, and possibly also lightning. fire (see n. 4, p. 433), but Coleridge may be 6. A rushlike plant growing in wet soil.
.
The bodies of the ship's crew are inspired, and the ship moves on;
But not by the souls of the men, nor bydaemons' of earth or middle air, but by a blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent down by the imvocation of the guardiansaint.
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINERThe loud wind never reached the ship,
Yet now the ship moved on!
Beneath the lightning and the moon
The dead men gave a groan. They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise. The helmsman steered, the ship moved on;
Yet never a breeze up blew;
The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,
Where they were wont to do;
They raised their limbs like lifeless tools?
We were a ghastly crew. The body of my brother's son
Stood by me, knee to knee:
The body and I pulled at one rope,
But he said nought to me.
'I fear thee, ancient Mariner!'
Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!
Twas not those souls that fled in pain,
Which to their corses8 came again,
But a troop of spirits blest:
For when it dawned?they dropped their arms,
And clustered round the mast;
Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,
And from their bodies passed.
Around, around, flew each sweet sound,
Then darted to the Sun;
Slowly the sounds came back again,
Now mixed, now one by one.
Sometimes a-dropping from the sky
I heard the sky-lark sing;
Sometimes all little birds that are,
How they seemed to fill the sea and air
With their sweet jargoning!9
And now 'twas like all instruments,
Now like a lonely flute;
And now it is an angel's song,
That makes the heavens be mute.
7. Supernatural beings halfway between mortals 8. Corpses. and gods (the type of spirit that Coleridge
