The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 142

? 1801.

FOOTNOTES:

[409:1] First published in _Literary Remains_, 1836, i. 280. First collected in _P. and D. W._, 1877-80. The t.i.tle was prefixed to the _Poems of Coleridge_ (ill.u.s.trated edition), 1907. This 'exquisite fragment . . . was probably composed as the opening of _Recollections of Love_, and abandoned on account of a change of metre.'--_Editor's Note_, 1893 (p. 635). It is in no way a translation, but the thought or idea was suggested by one of the German stanzas which Coleridge selected and copied into one of his Notebooks as models or specimens of various metres. For the original, vide Appendices of this edition.

RECOLLECTIONS OF LOVE[409:2]

I

How warm this woodland wild Recess!

Love surely hath been breathing here; And this sweet bed of heath, my dear!

Swells up, then sinks with faint caress, As if to have you yet more near. 5

II

Eight springs have flown, since last I lay On sea-ward Quantock's heathy hills, Where quiet sounds from hidden rills Float here and there, like things astray, And high o'er head the sky-lark shrills. 10

III

No voice as yet had made the air Be music with your name; yet why That asking look? that yearning sigh?

That sense of promise every where?

Beloved! flew your spirit by? 15

IV

As when a mother doth explore The rose-mark on her long-lost child, I met, I loved you, maiden mild!

As whom I long had loved before-- So deeply had I been beguiled. 20

V

You stood before me like a thought, A dream remembered in a dream.

But when those meek eyes first did seem To tell me, Love within you wrought-- O Greta, dear domestic stream! 25

VI

Has not, since then, Love's prompture deep, Has not Love's whisper evermore Been ceaseless, as thy gentle roar?

Sole voice, when other voices sleep, Dear under-song in clamor's hour. 30

1807.

FOOTNOTES:

[409:2] First published in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834. It is impossible to fix the date of composition, though internal evidence points to July, 1807, when Coleridge revisited Stowey after a long absence. The first stanza, a variant of the preceding fragment, is introduced into a prose fancy, ent.i.tled 'Questions and Answers in the Court of Love', of uncertain date, but perhaps written at Malta in 1805 (vide Appendices of this edition). A first draft of stanzas 1-4 (vide supra) is included in the collection of metrical experiments and metrical schemes, modelled on German and Italian originals, which seems to have been begun in 1801, with a view to a projected 'Essay on Metre'. Stanzas 5, 6 are not contemporary with stanzas 1-4, and, perhaps, date from 1814, 1815, when _Sibylline Leaves_ were being prepared for the press.

TO TWO SISTERS[410:1]

[MARY MORGAN AND CHARLOTTE BRENT]

A WANDERER'S FAREWELL

To know, to esteem, to love,--and then to part-- Makes up life's tale to many a feeling heart; Alas for some abiding-place of love, O'er which my spirit, like the mother dove, Might brood with warming wings!

O fair! O kind! 5 Sisters in blood, yet each with each intwined More close by sisterhood of heart and mind!

Me disinherited in form and face By nature, and mishap of outward grace; Who, soul and body, through one guiltless fault 10 Waste daily with the poison of sad thought, Me did you soothe, when solace hoped I none!

And as on unthaw'd ice the winter sun, Though stern the frost, though brief the genial day, You bless my heart with many a cheerful ray; 15 For grat.i.tude suspends the heart's despair, Reflecting bright though cold your image there.

Nay more! its music by some sweeter strain Makes us live o'er our happiest hours again, Hope re-appearing dim in memory's guise-- 20 Even thus did you call up before mine eyes Two dear, dear Sisters, prized all price above, Sisters, like you, with more than sisters' love; _So_ like you _they_, and so in _you_ were seen Their relative statures, tempers, looks, and mien, 25 That oft, dear ladies! you have been to me At once a vision and reality.

Sight seem'd a sort of memory, and amaze Mingled a trouble with affection's gaze.

Oft to my eager soul I whisper blame, 30 A Stranger bid it feel the Stranger's shame-- My eager soul, impatient of the name, No strangeness owns, no Stranger's form descries: The chidden heart spreads trembling on the eyes.

First-seen I gazed, as I would look you thro'! 35 My best-beloved regain'd their youth in you,-- And still I ask, though now familiar grown, Are you for _their_ sakes dear, or for your own?

O doubly dear! may Quiet with you dwell!

In Grief I love you, yet I love you well! 40 Hope long is dead to me! an orphan's tear Love wept despairing o'er his nurse's bier.

Yet still she flutters o'er her grave's green slope: For Love's despair is but the ghost of Hope!

Sweet Sisters! were you placed around one hearth 45 With those, your other selves in shape and worth, Far rather would I sit in solitude, Fond recollections all my fond heart's food, And dream of _you_, sweet Sisters! (ah! not mine!) And only _dream_ of you (ah! dream and pine!) 50 Than boast the presence and partake the pride, And s.h.i.+ne in the eye, of all the world beside.

1807.

FOOTNOTES:

[410:1] First published in _The Courier_, December 10, 1807, with the signature SIESTI. First collected in _P. and D. W._, 1877-80. The following abbreviated and altered version was included in _P. W._, 1834, 1844, and 1852, with the heading 'On taking Leave of ---- 1817':--

To know, to esteem, to love--and then to part, Makes up life's tale to many a feeling heart!

O for some dear abiding-place of Love, O'er which my spirit, like the mother dove Might brood with warming wings!--O fair as kind, Were but one sisterhood with you combined, (Your very image they in shape and mind) Far rather would I sit in solitude, The forms of memory all my mental food, And dream of you, sweet sisters, (ah, not mine!) And only dream of you (ah dream and pine!) Than have the presence, and partake the pride, And s.h.i.+ne in the eye of all the world beside!

PSYCHE[412:1]

The b.u.t.terfly the ancient Grecians made The soul's fair emblem, and its only name--[412:2]

But of the soul, escaped the slavish trade Of mortal life!--For in this earthly frame Ours is the reptile's lot, much toil, much blame, 5 Manifold motions making little speed, And to deform and kill the things whereon we feed.

1808.

FOOTNOTES: