The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 154

The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 154

[442:1] The English Parna.s.sus is remarkable for its two summits of unequal height, the lower denominated Hampstead, the higher Highgate.

[443:1] Compare '_The Eighth Commandment_ was not made for Love', l. 16 of Elegy I of _The Love Elegies of Abel Shufflebottom_, by R. Southey.

LINENOTES:

t.i.tle] The Reproof and Reply (the alternative t.i.tle is omitted) 1834.

[31] Mary H----] Mary ---- 1834, 1844.

[38] Did lure the] Lured the wild F. O. 1834.

FIRST ADVENT OF LOVE[443:2]

O FAIR is Love's first hope to gentle mind!

As Eve's first star thro' fleecy cloudlet peeping; And sweeter than the gentle south-west wind.

O'er willowy meads, and shadow'd waters creeping, And Ceres' golden fields;--the sultry hind 5 Meets it with brow uplift, and stays his reaping.

? 1824.

FOOTNOTES:

[443:2] First published in 1834. In a MS. note, dated September 1827, it is included in 'Relics of my School-boy Muse: i. e. fragments of poems composed before my fifteenth year', _P. W._, 1852, Notes, p. 379; but in an entry in a notebook dated 1824, Coleridge writes: 'A pretty unintended couplet in the prose of Sidney's _Arcadia_:--

'And, sweeter than a gentle south-west wind O'er flowery fields and shadowed waters creeping In summer's extreme heat.'

The pa.s.sage which Coleridge versified is to be found in the _Arcadia_:--

'Her breath is more sweet than a gentle south-west wind, which comes creeping over flowing fields and shadowed waters in the heat of summer.'

LINENOTES:

t.i.tle] Love's First Hope 1893.

THE DELINQUENT TRAVELLERS[443:3]

Some are home-sick--some two or three, Their third year on the Arctic Sea-- Brave Captain Lyon tells us so[444:1]-- Spite of those charming Esquimaux.

But O, what scores are sick of Home, 5 Agog for Paris or for Rome!

Nay! tho' contented to abide, You should prefer your own fireside; Yet since grim War has ceas'd its madding, And Peace has set John Bull agadding, 10 'Twould such a vulgar taste betray, For very shame you must away!

'What? not yet seen the coast of France!

The folks will swear, for lack of bail, You've spent your last five years in jail!' 15

Keep moving! Steam, or Gas, or Stage, Hold, cabin, steerage, hencoop's cage-- Tour, Journey, Voyage, Lounge, Ride, Walk, Skim, Sketch, Excursion, Travel-talk-- For move you must! 'Tis now the rage, 20 The law and fashion of the Age.

If you but perch, where Dover tallies, So strangely with the coast of Calais, With a good gla.s.s and knowing look, You'll soon get matter for a book! 25 Or else, in Gas-car, take your chance Like that adventurous king of France, Who, once, with twenty thousand men Went up--and then came down again; At least, he moved if nothing more: 30 And if there's nought left to explore, Yet while your well-greased wheels keep spinning, The traveller's honoured name you're winning, And, snug as Jonas in the Whale, You may loll back and dream a tale. 35 Move, or be moved--there's no protection, Our Mother Earth has ta'en the infection-- (That rogue Copernicus, 'tis said First put the whirring in her head,) A planet She, and can't endure 40 T'exist without her annual Tour: The _name_ were else a mere misnomer, Since Planet is but Greek for _Roamer_.

The atmosphere, too, can do no less Than ventilate her emptiness, 45 Bilks turn-pike gates, for no one cares, And gives herself a thousand airs-- While streams and shopkeepers, we see, Will have their run toward the sea-- And if, meantime, like old King Log, 50 Or a.s.s with tether and a clog, Must graze at home! to yawn and bray 'I guess we shall have rain to-day!'

Nor clog nor tether can be worse Than the dead palsy of the purse. 55 Money, I've heard a wise man say, Makes herself wings and flys away: Ah! would She take it in her head To make a pair for me instead!

At all events, the Fancy's free, 60 No traveller so bold as she.

From Fear and Poverty released I'll saddle Pegasus, at least, And when she's seated to her mind, I within I can mount behind: 65 And since this outward I, you know, Must stay because he cannot go, My fellow-travellers shall be they Who go because they cannot stay-- Rogues, rascals, sharpers, blanks and prizes, 70 Delinquents of all sorts and sizes, Fraudulent bankrupts, Knights burglarious, And demireps of means precarious-- All whom Law thwarted, Arms or Arts, Compel to visit foreign parts, 75 All hail! No compliments, I pray, I'll follow where you lead the way!

But ere we cross the main once more, Methinks, along my native sh.o.r.e, Dismounting from my steed I'll stray 80 Beneath the cliffs of Dumpton Bay.[446:1]

Where, Ramsgate and Broadstairs between, Rude caves and grated doors are seen: And here I'll watch till break of day, (For Fancy in her magic might 85 Can turn broad noon to starless night!) When lo! methinks a sudden band Of smock-clad smugglers round me stand.

Denials, oaths, in vain I try, At once they gag me for a spy, 90 And stow me in the boat hard by.

Suppose us fairly now afloat, Till Boulogne mouth receives our Boat.

But, bless us! what a numerous band Of c.o.c.kneys anglicise the strand! 95 Delinquent bankrupts, leg-bail'd debtors, Some for the news, and some for letters-- With hungry look and tarnished dress, French shrugs and British surliness.

Sick of the country for their sake 100 Of them and France _French leave_ I take-- And lo! a transport comes in view I hear the merry motley crew, Well skill'd in pocket to make entry, Of Dieman's Land the elected Gentry, 105 And founders of Australian Races.-- The Rogues! I see it in their faces!

Receive me, Lads! I'll go with you, Hunt the black swan and kangaroo, And that New Holland we'll presume 110 Old England with some elbow-room.

Across the mountains we will roam, And each man make himself a home: Or, if old habits ne'er forsaking, Like clock-work of the Devil's making, 115 Ourselves inveterate rogues should be, We'll have a virtuous progeny; And on the dunghill of our vices Raise human pine-apples and spices.

Of all the children of John Bull 120 With empty heads and bellies full, Who ramble East, West, North and South, With leaky purse and open mouth, In search of varieties exotic The usefullest and most patriotic, 125 And merriest, too, believe me, Sirs!

Are your Delinquent Travellers!

1824.

FOOTNOTES:

[443:3] From an hitherto unpublished MS., formerly in the possession of Coleridge's friend and amanuensis Joseph Henry Green.

[444:1] _The Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon of the Mt. Hecla, during the recent voyage of discovery under Captain Parry_, was published by John Murray in 1824. In a letter dated May, 1823, Lucy Caroline Lamb writes to Murray:--'If there is yet time, do tell Captain Lyon, that I, and others far bettor than I am, are enchanted with his book.' _Memoirs . . . of John Murray_, 1891, i. 145.

[446:1] A coast village near Ramsgate. Coleridge pa.s.sed some weeks at Ramsgate in the late autumn of 1824.

WORK WITHOUT HOPE[447:1]

LINES COMPOSED 21ST FEBRUARY 1825

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair-- The bees are stirring--birds are on the wing--[447:2]

And Winter slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!

And I the while, the sole unbusy thing, 5 Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow, Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.

Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may, For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away! 10 With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll: And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?

Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live.

1825.