The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 149

HOPE

Yet let our choral songs abound!

Th' inspiring Power, its living Source, 10 May flow with them and give them force, If, elsewhere all unheard, in Heaven they sound.

ALL

Aid thou our voice, Great Spirit! thou whose flame Kindled the Songster sweet of Israel, Who made so high to swell 15 Beyond a mortal strain thy glorious Name.

CHARITY AND FAITH

Though rapt to Heaven, our mission and our care Is still to sojourn on the Earth, To shape, to soothe, Man's second Birth, And re-ascend to Heaven, Heaven's prodigal Heir! 20

CHARITY

What is Man's soul of Love deprived?

HOPE. FAITH

It like a Harp untuned is, That sounds, indeed, but sounds amiss.

CHARITY. HOPE

From holy Love all good gifts are derived.

FAITH

But 'tis time that every nation 25 Should hear how loftily we sing.

FAITH. HOPE. CHARITY

See, O World, see thy salvation!

Let the Heavens with praises ring.

Who would have a Throne above, Let him hope, believe and love; 30 And whoso loves no earthly song, But does for heavenly music long, Faith, Hope, and Charity for him, Shall sing like winged Cherubim.

1815.

FOOTNOTES:

[427:2] From a hitherto unpublished MS. For the original _Dialogo: Fide, Speranza, Fide_, included in the 'Madrigali . . .' del Signor Cavalier Battista Guarini, 1663, vide Appendices of this edition. The translation in Coleridge's handwriting is preceded by another version transcribed and, possibly, composed by Hartley Coleridge.

TO NATURE[429:1]

It may indeed be phantasy, when I Essay to draw from all created things Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings; And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie Lessons of love and earnest piety. 5 So let it be; and if the wide world rings In mock of this belief, it brings Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity.

So will I build my altar in the fields, And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be, 10 And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee, Thee only G.o.d! and thou shalt not despise Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice.

? 1820.

FOOTNOTES:

[429:1] First published in _Letters, Conversations and Recollections_ by S. T. Coleridge, 1836, i. 144. First collected in _Poems_, 1863, Appendix, p. 391.

LIMBO[429:2]

The sole true Something--This! In Limbo's Den It frightens Ghosts, as here Ghosts frighten men.

Thence cross'd unseiz'd--and shall some fated hour Be pulveris'd by Demogorgon's power, And given as poison to annihilate souls-- 5 Even now it shrinks them--they shrink in as Moles (Nature's mute monks, live mandrakes of the ground) Creep back from Light--then listen for its sound;-- See but to dread, and dread they know not why-- The natural alien of their negative eye. 10

'Tis a strange place, this Limbo!--not a Place, Yet name it so;--where Time and weary s.p.a.ce Fettered from flight, with night-mare sense of fleeing, Strive for their last crepuscular half-being;-- Lank s.p.a.ce, and scytheless Time with branny hands 15 Barren and soundless as the measuring sands, Not mark'd by flit of Shades,--unmeaning they As moonlight on the dial of the day!

But that is lovely--looks like Human Time,-- An Old Man with a steady look sublime, 20 That stops his earthly task to watch the skies; But he is blind--a Statue hath such eyes;-- Yet having moonward turn'd his face by chance, Gazes the orb with moon-like countenance, With scant white hairs, with foretop bald and high, 25 He gazes still,--his eyeless face all eye;-- As 'twere an organ full of silent sight, His whole face seemeth to rejoice in light!

Lip touching lip, all moveless, bust and limb-- He seems to gaze at that which seems to gaze on him! 30 No such sweet sights doth Limbo den immure, Wall'd round, and made a spirit-jail secure, By the mere horror of blank Naught-at-all, Whose circ.u.mambience doth these ghosts enthral.

A lurid thought is growthless, dull Privation, 35 Yet that is but a Purgatory curse; h.e.l.l knows a fear far worse, A fear--a future state;--'tis positive Negation!

1817.

FOOTNOTES:

[429:2] First published, in its present shape, from an original MS. in 1893 (inscribed in a notebook). Lines 6-10 ('they shrink . . . negative eye') were first printed in _The Friend_ (1818, iii. 215), and included as a separate fragment with the t.i.tle 'Moles' in _P. W._, 1834, i. 259.

Lines 11-38 were first printed with the t.i.tle 'Limbo' in _P. W._, 1834, i. 272-3. The lines as quoted in _The Friend_ were directed against 'the partisans of a cra.s.s and sensual materialism, the advocates of the _Nihil nisi ab extra_'. The following variants, now first printed, are from a second MS. (_MS. S. T. C._) in the possession of Miss Edith Coleridge. In the notebook _Limbo_ is followed by the lines ent.i.tled _Ne Plus Ultra_, vide _post_, p. 431.

LINENOTES:

t.i.tle] Another Fragment, but in a very different style, from a Dream of Purgatory, alias Limbus MS. S. T. C. [_Note._--In this MS. _Phantom_, 'All Look and Likeness,' &c. precedes _Limbo_.]

[Between 2-3]

For skimming in the wake it mock'd the care Of the old Boat-G.o.d for his farthing fare; Tho' Irus' Ghost itself he ne'er frown'd blacker on The skin and skin-pent Druggist cross'd the Acheron, Styx, and with Periphlegeton Cocytus,-- (The very names, methinks, might frighten us) Unchang'd it cross'd--_and shall some fated hour_

MS. Notebook.