But covet not the abode; O do not sigh As many do, repining while they look; This precious leaf with harsh impiety: -Think what the home must be if it were thine, Even thine, though few thy wants!-Roof, window, door, The very flowers are sacred to the Poor, The roses to the porch which they entwine: 412 TO SLEEP A FLOCK of sheep that leisurely pass by I've thought of all by turns, and still I lie Even thus last night, and two nights more I lay, Without Thee what is all the morning's wealth? 413 THE SONNET I NUNS fret not at their convent's narrow room; And students with their pensive citadels; 414 Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom, In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground; Pleased if some souls (for such there needs must be) Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, Should find brief solace there, as I have found. II SCORN not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frown'd, Shakespeare unlock'd his heart; the melody It cheer'd mild Spenser, call'd from Faery-land To struggle through dark ways; and, when a damp Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew Soul-animating strains-alas, too few! WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES DOVER CLIFFS ON these white cliffs, that calm above the flood Sailed slow, has thought of all his heart must leave To-morrow; of the friends he loved most dear; 415 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER IN SEVEN PARTS ARGUMENT.-How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country. [1798.] PART I IT is an ancient Mariner, An ancient Mariner meeteth three Gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one And he stoppeth one of three. By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide, The guests are met, the feast is set: May'st hear the merry din." He holds him with his skinny hand, "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!" The Wedding. Eftsoons his hand dropt he. Guest is spellbound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained to hear his tale He holds him with his glittering eye- The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: He cannot choose but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, The bright-eyed Mariner. "The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared, Merrily did we drop Below the kirk, below the hill, Below the lighthouse top. "The sun came up upon the left, Out of the sea came he! And he shone bright, and on the right "Higher and higher every day, The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, The bride hath paced into the hall, Nodding their heads before her goes The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, "And now the Storm-blast came, and he He struck with his o'ertaking wings, "With sloping masts and dipping prow, As who pursued with yell and blow Still treads the shadow of his foe, The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the line The WeddingGuest heareth the bridal music; but the Mariner continueth his tale The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole The land of ice, and of fearful sounds where no liv ing thing was to be seen Till a great came through and was received with great joy and hospitality And lo! the proveth a bird and followeth the ship as it returned northward through fog And forward bends his head, The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, And now there came both mist and snow, And ice, mast-high, came floating by, "And through the drifts the snowy clifts Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken- "The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, At length did cross an Albatross, As if it had been a Christian soul, "It ate the food it ne'er had eat, 66 And a good south wind sprung up behind; And every day, for food or play, "In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, and floating ice It perched for vespers nine; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, |