The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 9

AD LYRAM.

Sonora buxi filia sutilis, Pendebis alta, barbite, populo, Dum ridet aer, et supinas Solicitat levis aura frondes.

Te sibilantis lenior halitus Perflabit Euri: me juvet interim Collum reclina.s.se, et virenti Sic temere [2] jacuisse ripa.

Eheu! serenum quae nebulae tegunt Repente caelum! quis sonus imbrium!

Surgamus--heu semper fugaci Gaudia praeteritura pa.s.su!

IMITATION.

The solemn-breathing air is ended-- Cease, O Lyre! thy kindred lay!

From the poplar branch suspended, Glitter to the eye of day!

On thy wires, hov'ring, dying, Softly sighs the summer wind: I will slumber, careless lying, By yon waterfall reclin'd.

In the forest hollow-roaring, Hark! I hear a deep'ning sound-- Clouds rise thick with heavy low'ring!

See! th' horizon blackens round!

Parent of the soothing measure, Let me seize thy wetted string!

Swiftly flies the flatterer, pleasure, Headlong, ever on the wing!

[Footnote 1: The Odes of Casimire translated by G.H. [G. Hils.] London, 1646. 12mo. Ed.]

[Footnote 2: Had Casimir any better authority for this quant.i.ty than Tertullian's line,--

Immemor ille Dei temere committere tale--?

In the cla.s.sic poets the last syllable is, I believe, uniformly cut off.

Ed.]

DARWINIANA.

THE HOUR WHEN WE SHALL MEET AGAIN. (COMPOSED DURING ILLNESS AND IN ABSENCE.)

Dim Hour! that sleep'st on pillowing clouds afar, O rise, and yoke the turtles to thy car!

Bend o'er the traces, blame each lingering dove, And give me to the bosom of my love!

My gentle love! caressing and carest, With heaving heart shall cradle me to rest; Shed the warm tear-drop from her smiling eyes, Lull with fond woe, and med'cine me with sighs; While finely-flus.h.i.+ng float her kisses meek, Like melted rubies, o'er my pallid cheek.

Chill'd by the night, the drooping rose of May Mourns the long absence of the lovely day: Young Day returning at her promised hour, Weeps o'er the sorrows of the fav'rite flower,-- Weeps the soft dew, the balmy gale she sighs, And darts a trembling l.u.s.tre from her eyes.

New life and joy th' expanding flow'ret feels: His pitying mistress mourns, and mourning heals!

1796.

In my calmer moments I have the firmest faith that all things work together for good. But, alas! it seems a long and a dark process:--

"THE EARLY YEAR'S FAST-FLYING VAPOURS STRAY..."

The early year's fast-flying vapours stray In shadowing trains across the orb of day; And we, poor insects of a few short hours, Deem it a world of gloom.

Were it not better hope, a n.o.bler doom, Proud to believe, that with more active powers On rapid many-colour'd wing, We thro' one bright perpetual spring Shall hover round the fruits and flowers, Screen'd by those clouds, and cherish'd by those showers!

1796.

COUNT RUMFORB'S ESSAYS.

These, Virtue, are thy triumphs, that adorn Fitliest our nature, and bespeak us born For loftiest action;--not to gaze and run From clime to clime; or batten in the sun, Dragging a drony flight from flower to flower, Like summer insects in a gaudy hour; Nor yet o'er lovesick tales with fancy range, And cry, ''Tis pitiful,'tis pa.s.sing strange!'

But on life's varied views to look around, And raise expiring sorrow from the ground:-- And he--who thus hath borne his part a.s.sign'd In the sad fellows.h.i.+p of human kind, Or for a moment soothed the bitter pain Of a poor brother--has not lived in vain.

1796

EPIGRAMS.

ON A LATE MARRIAGE BETWEEN AN OLD MAID AND A FRENCH PEt.i.t MAiTRE.

Tho' Miss----'s match is a subject of mirth She consider'd the matter full well, And wisely preferr'd leading one ape on earth To perhaps a whole dozen in h.e.l.l.

1796.