The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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СКАЧАТЬ forth thy hand (thus ended she),

      And help a wretched maid to flee.

      Then Christabel stretched forth her hand,

      And comforted fair Geraldine:

      O well, bright dame! may you command

      The service of Sir Leoline;

      And gladly our stout chivalry

      Will he send forth and friends withal

      To guide and guard you safe and free

      Home to your noble father’s hall.

      She rose: and forth with steps they passed

      That strove to be, and were not, fast.

      Her gracious stars the lady blest,

      And thus spake on sweet Christabel:

      All our household are at rest,

      The hall as silent as the cell;

      Sir Leoline is weak in health,

      And may not well awakened be,

      But we will move as if in stealth,

      And I beseech your courtesy,

      This night, to share your couch with me.

      They crossed the moat, and Christabel

      Took the key that fitted well;

      A little door she opened straight,

      All in the middle of the gate;

      The gate that was ironed within and without,

      Where an army in battle array had marched out.

      The lady sank, belike through pain,

      And Christabel with might and main

      Lifted her up, a weary weight,

      Over the threshold of the gate:

      Then the lady rose again,

      And moved, as she were not in pain.

      So free from danger, free from fear,

      They crossed the court: right glad they were.

      And Christabel devoutly cried

      To the lady by her side,

      ‘Praise we the Virgin all divine

      Who hath rescued thee from thy distress!’

      ‘Alas, alas!’ said Geraldine,

      ‘I cannot speak for weariness.’

      So free from danger, free from fear,

      They crossed the court: right glad they were.

      Outside her kennel, the mastiff old

      Lay fast asleep, in moonshine cold.

      The mastiff old did not awake,

      Yet she an angry moan did make!

      And what can ail the mastiff bitch?

      Never till now she uttered yell

      Beneath the eye of Christabel.

      Perhaps it is the owlet’s scritch:

      For what can ail the mastiff bitch?

      They passed the hall, that echoes still,

      Pass as lightly as you will!

      The brands were flat, the brands were dying,

      Amid their own white ashes lying;

      But when the lady passed, there came

      A tongue of light, a fit of flame;

      And Christabel saw the lady’s eye,

      And nothing else saw she thereby,

      Save the boss of the shield of Sir Leoline tall,

      Which hung in a murky old niche in the wall.

      O softly tread, said Christabel,

      My father seldom sleepeth well.

      Sweet Christabel her feet doth bare,

      And jealous of the listening air

      They steal their way from stair to stair,

      Now in glimmer, and now in gloom,

      And now they pass the Baron’s room,

      As still as death, with stifled breath!

      And now have reached her chamber door;

      And now doth Geraldine press down

      The rushes of the chamber floor.

      The moon shines dim in the open air,

      And not a moonbeam enters here.

      But they without its light can see

      The chamber carved so curiously,

      Carved with figures strange and sweet,

      All made out of the carver’s brain,

      For a lady’s chamber meet:

      The lamp with twofold silver chain

      Is fastened to an angel’s feet.

      The silver lamp burns dead and dim;

      But Christabel the lamp will trim.

      She trimmed the lamp, and made it bright,

      And left it swinging to and fro,

      While Geraldine, in wretched plight,

      Sank down upon the floor below.

      ‘O weary lady, Geraldine,

      I pray you, drink this cordial wine!

      It is a wine of virtuous powers;

      My mother made it of wild flowers.’

      ‘And will your mother pity me,

      Who am a maiden СКАЧАТЬ