The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems of the Romantic Era | Strange fits of Passion have I Known

Strange fits of Passion have I Known

Strange fits of passion have I known,
And I will dare to tell,
But in the lover's ear alone,
What once to me befel.
When she I loved looked every day
Fresh as a rose in June,
I to her cottage bent my way,
Beneath an evening moon.
Upon the moon I fixed my eye,
All over the wide lea;
With quickening pace my horse drew nigh
Those paths so dear to me.
And now we reached the orchard-plot,
And, as we climbed the hill,
The sinking moon to Lucy's cot
Came near, and nearer still.
In one of those sweet dreams I slept,
Kind Nature's gentlest boon!
And, all the while, my eyes I kept
On the descending moon.
My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and never stopped:
When down behind the cottage roof
At once, the bright moon dropped.
What fond and wayward thoughts will slide
Into a Lover's head!
“O mercy!” to myself I cried,
“If Lucy should be dead!”
  • intense bursts of emotion
  • a pasture
  • a cottage
  • a benefit, favor, gift or act of kindness
  • During the speaker's ride to Lucy's cottage, the moon has been setting.