That he might watch its paly splendours, how
They lightened here and there, and flashed aflame,
Mocked at the moon and put the stars to shame. 
But hardly was the stone out of his hand,
When the boat wrenched her moorings from the land,
And swift as any captive bird set free
Shot o’er the shimmering surface of the sea,
The spirit of the emerald guiding her;
And for a time the old man could not stir
For very greatness of astonishment.

But merrily o’er the moonlit waters went
The pinnace, till the land was out of sight,
Far in the dreaming distance.  All that night,
Faster than ever wind in winter blew,
Faster than quarrel flies the bow, she flew. 
A moment was a league in that wild flight
From vast to vast of ocean and the night. 
And now the moon her lanthorn had withdrawn: 
And now the pale weak heralds of the dawn
Lifted the lids of their blear eyes afar: 
The last belated straggler of a star
Went home; and in her season due the morn
Brake on a cold and silent sea forlorn—­
A strange mute sea, where never wave hath stirred,
Nor sound of any wandering wind is heard,
Nor voice of sailors sailing merrily: 
A sea untraversed, an enchanted sea
From all the world fate-folden; hemmed about
Of linked Dreams; encompassed with a Doubt.

But not the less for lack of wind went she,
The flying pinnace, o’er that silent sea,
Till those dull waters of enchantment lay
Behind her many a league.  And now her way
Was toward a shining tract of ocean, where
Low winds with bland breath flattered the mild air,
And low waves did together clasp and close,
And skyward yearning from the sea there rose
And seaward yearning from the sky there fell
A Spirit of Deep Content Unspeakable: 
So midway meeting betwixt sky and sea,
These twain are married for eternity,
And rule the spirits of that Deep, and share
The lordship of the legions of the air.

Here winds but came to rest them from their wars
With far seas waged.  Here Darkness had her stars
Always, a nightly multitudinous birth. 
And entering on this happier zone of earth,
The boat ’gan bate her speed, and by degrees
Tempered her motion to the tranquil seas,
As if she knew the land not far ahead,
The port not far:  so forward piloted
By that sweet spirit and strong, she held her way
Unveering.  And a little past midday,
The wanderer lifted up his eyes, and right
Before him saw what seemed a great wall, white
As alabaster, builded o’er the sea,
High as the heaven; but drawing nearer he
Perceived it was a mighty mist that lay
Upon the ocean, stretching far away
Northward and southward, and the sun appeared
Powerless to melt its mass.  And while he neared
This cloudy barrier stretching north and south,
A tale once told him by his mother’s mouth,
In childhood, while he sat upon her knee,