This is a wonderful picture of the
sudden fall of night near the equator, where there is no twilight.
[33.] Clomb, climbed; an old form.
[34.] The horned moon, etc. Coleridge says in a note: "It is a common
superstition among sailors that something evil is about to happen
whenever a star dogs the moon."
[35.] I fear thee. The wedding guest imagined that the Mariner died
with the rest of the sailors and that he was talking with a ghost.
[36.] And thou art long, etc. This line and the line following were
written by Wordsworth.
[37.] For the sky, etc. This line, with its repetitions, and the extra
length of the stanza, tend to make one feel the load that was pressing
upon the Mariner.
[38.] Bemocked the sultry main, mocked the sultry ocean.
[39.] They moved, etc. This description is true of fish of all kinds
on a dark night when there is a great deal of phosphorus in the water.
[40.] Silly, frail.
[41.] Dank, damp, wet; seldom used in prose.
[42.] Sheen, bright, glittering.
[43.] Wan, pale.
[44.] Gan work, did work, or began to work.
[45.] Sometimes a-dropping, etc. Notice what a pleasant interlude is
made by this stanza and the three which follow.
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