And I saw a boat appear.
The Pilot and the Pilot's boy,
I heard them coming fast:
Dear Lord in Heaven! it was a joy
The dead men could not blast.
I saw a third--I heard his voice:
It is the Hermit good!
He singeth loud his godly hymns
That he makes in the wood.
He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away
The Albatross's blood.
Part VII
- This Hermit good lives in that wood
- Which slopes down to the sea.
- How loudly his sweet voice he rears!
- He loves to talk with marineres
- That come from a far countree.
- He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve--
- He hath a cushion plump:
- It is the moss that wholly hides
- The rotted old oak-stump.
- The skiff-boat neared: I heard them talk,
- 'Why, this is strange, I trow!
- Where are those lights so many and fair,
- That signal made but now?'
- 'Strange, by my faith!' the Hermit said--
- 'And they answered not our cheer!
- The planks looked warped! and see those sails,
- How thin they are and sere!
- I never saw aught like to them,
- Unless perchance it were
- Brown skeletons of leaves that lag