The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 104

FOOTNOTES:

[304:1] First published in _Memoirs of W. Wordsworth_, 1851, i. 139-41: reprinted in _Life_ by Prof. Knight, 1889, i. 185. First collected as a whole in _P. W._ [ed. T. Ashe], 1885. lines 30-6, 'O what a life is the eye', &c., were first published in _Friends.h.i.+p's Offering_, and are included in _P. W._, 1834. They were reprinted by Cottle in _E. R._, 1837, i. 226. The 'Hexameters' were sent in a letter, written in the winter of 1798-9 from Ratzeburg to the Wordsworths at Goslar.

[304:2] False metre. _S. T. C._

[304:3] '_Still_ flying onwards' were perhaps better. _S. T. C._

[305:1] False metre. _S. T. C._

LINENOTES:

[28] strange] fine Letter, 1798-9, Cottle, 1837.

[29] Him] He Cottle, 1837.

[30] Him] He Cottle, 1837.

[31] Him that ne'er smiled at the bosom as babe Letter, 1798-9: He that smiled at the bosom, the babe Cottle, 1837.

[32] Even to him it exists, it stirs and moves Letter, 1798-9: Even to him it exists, it moves and stirs Cottle, 1837.

[33] a Spirit] the Spirit Letter, 1798-9.

[34] a] its Letter, 1798-9.

TRANSLATION OF A Pa.s.sAGE IN OTTFRIED'S METRICAL PARAPHRASE OF THE GOSPEL

[This paraphrase, written about the time of Charlemagne, is by no means deficient in occasional pa.s.sages of considerable poetic merit. There is a flow and a tender enthusiasm in the following lines which even in the translation will not, I flatter myself, fail to interest the reader.

Ottfried is describing the circ.u.mstances immediately following the birth of our Lord. Most interesting is it to consider the effect when the feelings are wrought above the natural pitch by the belief of something mysterious, while all the images are purely natural. Then it is that religion and poetry strike deepest. _Biog. Lit._, 1817, i.

203-4.[306:1]]

She gave with joy her virgin breast; She hid it not, she bared the breast Which suckled that divinest babe!

Blessed, blessed were the b.r.e.a.s.t.s Which the Saviour infant kiss'd; 5 And blessed, blessed was the mother Who wrapp'd his limbs in swaddling clothes, Singing placed him on her lap, Hung o'er him with her looks of love, And soothed him with a lulling motion. 10 Blessed! for she shelter'd him From the damp and chilling air; Blessed, blessed! for she lay With such a babe in one blest bed, Close as babes and mothers lie! 15 Blessed, blessed evermore, With her virgin lips she kiss'd, With her arms, and to her breast, She embraced the babe divine, Her babe divine the virgin mother! 20 There lives not on this ring of earth A mortal that can sing her praise.

Mighty mother, virgin pure, In the darkness and the night For us she _bore_ the heavenly Lord! 25

? 1799.

FOOTNOTES:

[306:1] First published as a footnote to Chapter X of the _Biographia Literaria_ (ed. 1817, i. 203-4). First collected in 1863 (Appendix, pp.

401-2). The translation is from _Otfridi Evang._, lib. i, cap. xi, ll.

73-108 (included in Schilter's _Thesaurus Antiquitatum Teutonicarum_, pp. 50-1, _Biog. Lit._, 1847, i. 213). Otfrid, 'a monk at Weissenburg in Elsa.s.s', composed his _Evangelienbuch_ about 870 A.D. (Note by J.

Shawcross, _Biog. Lit._, 1907, ii. 259). As Coleridge says that 'he read through Ottfried's metrical paraphrase of the Gospel' when he was at Gottingen, it may be a.s.sumed that the translation was made in 1799.

LINENOTES:

[5] Saviour infant] infant Saviour 1863.

CATULLIAN HENDECASYLLABLES[307:1]

Hear, my beloved, an old Milesian story!-- High, and embosom'd in congregated laurels, Glimmer'd a temple upon a breezy headland; In the dim distance amid the skiey billows Rose a fair island; the G.o.d of flocks had blest it. 5 From the far sh.o.r.es of the bleat-resounding island Oft by the moonlight a little boat came floating, Came to the sea-cave beneath the breezy headland, Where amid myrtles a pathway stole in mazes Up to the groves of the high embosom'd temple. 10 There in a thicket of dedicated roses, Oft did a priestess, as lovely as a vision, Pouring her soul to the son of Cytherea, Pray him to hover around the slight canoe-boat, And with invisible pilotage to guide it 15 Over the dusk wave, until the nightly sailor s.h.i.+vering with ecstasy sank upon her bosom.

? 1799.

FOOTNOTES:

[307:1] First published in 1834. These lines, which are not 'Hendecasyllables', are a translation of part of Friedrich von Matthisson's _Milesisches Mahrchen_. For the original see Note to _Poems_, 1852, and Appendices of this edition. There is no evidence as to the date of composition. The emendations in lines 5 and 6 were first printed in _P. W._, 1893.

LINENOTES:

[5] blest] plac'd 1834, 1844, 1852.

[6] bleat-resounding] bleak-resounding 1834, 1852.

[16] nightly] mighty 1834, 1844.

THE HOMERIC HEXAMETER[307:2]

DESCRIBED AND EXEMPLIFIED

Strongly it bears us along in swelling and limitless billows, Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and the ocean.

? 1799.

FOOTNOTES:

[307:2] First published (together with the 'Ovidian Elegiac Metre', &c.) in _Friends.h.i.+p's Offering_, 1834: included in _P. W._, 1834. An acknowledgement that these 'experiments in metre' are translations from Schiller was first made in a Note to _Poems_, 1844, p. 371. The originals were given on p. 372. See Appendices of this edition. There is no evidence as to the date of composition.