The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 145

LINENOTES:

_To a Lady, &c._--In line 3 'are', 'have', and in line 4 'have', 'you', are italicized in all editions except 1834.

REASON FOR LOVE'S BLINDNESS[418:2]

I have heard of reasons manifold Why Love must needs be blind, But this the best of all I hold-- His eyes are in his mind.

What outward form and feature are 5 He guesseth but in part; But that within is good and fair He seeth with the heart.

? 1811.

FOOTNOTES:

[418:2] First published in 1828: included in 1829 and 1834.

LINENOTES:

t.i.tle] In 1828, 1829, 1834 these stanzas are printed without a t.i.tle, but are divided by a s.p.a.ce from _Lines to a Lady_. The t.i.tle appears first in 1893.

THE SUICIDE'S ARGUMENT[419:1]

Ere the birth of my life, if I wished it or no, No question was asked me--it could not be so!

If the life was the question, a thing sent to try, And to live on be Yes; what can No be? to die.

NATURE'S ANSWER

Is't returned, as 'twas sent? Is't no worse for the wear? 5 Think first, what you are! Call to mind what you were!

I gave you innocence, I gave you hope, Gave health, and genius, and an ample scope.

Return you me guilt, lethargy, despair?

Make out the invent'ry; inspect, compare! 10 Then die--if die you dare!

1811.

FOOTNOTES:

[419:1] First published in 1828: included in 1829 and 1884. In a Notebook of (?) 1811 these lines are preceded by the following couplet:--

Complained of, complaining, there shov'd and here shoving, Every one blaming me, ne'er a one loving.

LINENOTES:

[4] Yes] YES 1828, 1829.

[6] are] ARE 1828, 1829. were] WERE 1828, 1829.

TIME, REAL AND IMAGINARY[419:2]

AN ALLEGORY

On the wide level of a mountain's head, (I knew not where, but 'twas some faery place) Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails out-spread, Two lovely children run an endless race, A sister and a brother!

This far outstripp'd the other; Yet ever runs she with reverted face.

And looks and listens for the boy behind: For he, alas! is blind!

O'er rough and smooth with even step he pa.s.sed, 10 And knows not whether he be first or last.

? 1812.

FOOTNOTES:

[419:2] First published in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817, in the preliminary matter, p. v: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834. In the 'Preface' to _Sibylline Leaves_, p. iii, an apology is offered for its insertion on the plea that it was a 'school boy poem' added 'at the request of the friends of my youth'. The t.i.tle is explained as follows:--'By imaginary Time, I meant the state of a school boy's mind when on his return to school he projects his being in his day dreams, and lives in his next holidays, six months hence; and this I contrasted with real Time.' In a Notebook of (?) 1811 there is an attempt to a.n.a.lyse and ill.u.s.trate the 'sense of Time', which appears to have been written before the lines as published in _Sibylline Leaves_ took shape: 'How marked the contrast between troubled manhood and joyously-active youth in the sense of time!

To the former, time like the sun in an empty sky is never seen to move, but only to have _moved_. There, there it was, and now 'tis here, now distant! yet all a blank between. To the latter it is as the full moon in a fine breezy October night, driving on amid clouds of all shapes and hues, and kindling s.h.i.+fting colours, like an ostrich in its speed, and yet seems not to have moved at all. This I feel to be a just image of time real and time as felt, in two different states of being. The t.i.tle of the poem therefore (for poem it ought to be) should be time real and time felt (in the sense of time) in active youth, or activity with hope and fullness of aim in any period, and in despondent, objectless manhood--time objective and subjective.' _Anima Poetae_, 1895, pp.

241-2.

AN INVOCATION[420:1]

FROM _REMORSE_

[Act III, Scene i. ll. 69-82.]

Hear, sweet Spirit, hear the spell, Lest a blacker charm compel!

So shall the midnight breezes swell With thy deep long-lingering knell.

And at evening evermore, 5 In a chapel on the sh.o.r.e, Shall the chaunter, sad and saintly, Yellow tapers burning faintly, Doleful ma.s.ses chaunt for thee, Miserere Domine! 10

Hus.h.!.+ the cadence dies away On the quiet moonlight sea: The boatmen rest their oars and say, Miserere Domine!

1812.