He was the last man in the world to care for a story
simply as a chain of events with no significance, and in these poems the
supernatural, by interpenetration with human emotions, comes closer to
us than an event of daily life. In return the emotions themselves, by
means of the supernatural expression, gain intensity. The texture is so
subtly interwoven that it is difficult to illustrate the point by
example, but take the following lines:-
"Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.
The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.
* * * *
The self-same moment I could pray:
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.
* * * *
And the hay was white with silent light
Till rising from the same,
Full many shapes, that shadows were,
In crimson colours came.
A little distance from the prow
Those crimson shadows were:
I turned my eyes upon the deck -
Oh, Christ! what saw I there!
Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,
And, by the holy rood!
A man all light, a seraph-man,
On every corse there stood.
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