The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 151

Mourn for the Babe, Death's voiceless prey, Earn'd by long pangs and lost ere won.

Mourn the bright Rose that bloom'd and went, Ere half disclosed its vernal hue! 10 Mourn the green Bud, so rudely rent, It brake the stem on which it grew.

Mourn for the universal woe With solemn dirge and fault'ring tongue: For England's Lady is laid low, 15 So dear, so lovely, and so young!

The blossoms on her Tree of Life Shone with the dews of recent bliss: Transplanted in that deadly strife, She plucks its fruits in Paradise. 20

Mourn for the widow'd Lord in chief, Who wails and will not solaced be!

Mourn for the childless Father's grief, The wedded Lover's agony!

Mourn for the Prince, who rose at morn 25 To seek and bless the firstling bud Of his own Rose, and found the thorn, Its point bedew'd with tears of blood.

O press again that murmuring string!

Again bewail that princely Sire! 30 A destined Queen, a future King, He mourns on one funereal pyre.

Mourn for Britannia's hopes decay'd, Her daughters wail their dear defence; Their fair example, prostrate laid, 35 Chaste Love and fervid Innocence.

While Grief in song shall seek repose, We will take up a Mourning yearly: To wail the blow that crush'd the Rose, So dearly priz'd and lov'd so dearly. 40

Long as the fount of Song o'erflows Will I the yearly dirge renew: Mourn for the firstling of the Rose, That snapt the stem on which it grew.

The proud shall pa.s.s, forgot; the chill, 45 Damp, trickling Vault their only mourner!

Not so the regal Rose, that still Clung to the breast which first had worn her!

O thou, who mark'st the Mourner's path To sad Jeshurun's Sons attend! 50 Amid the Light'nings of thy Wrath The showers of Consolation send!

Jehovah frowns! the Islands bow!

And Prince and People kiss the Rod!-- Their dread chastising Judge wert thou! 55 Be thou their Comforter, O G.o.d!

1817.

FOOTNOTES:

[433:2] First published, together with the Hebrew, as an octavo pamphlet (pp. 13) in 1817. An abbreviated version was included in _Literary Remains_, 1836, i. 57-8 and in the Appendix to _Poems_, 1863. The _Lament_ as a whole was first collected in _P. and D. W._, 1877-80, ii.

282-5.

LINENOTES:

_t.i.tle_] Israel's Lament on the death of the Princess Charlotte of Wales. From the Hebrew of Hyman Hurwitz L. R.

[19] Transplanted] Translated L. R., 1863.

[21-4] om. L. R, 1863.

[29-32] om. L. R., 1863.

[49-56] om. L. R., 1863.

[49] Mourner's] Mourners' L. R., 1863.

FANCY IN NUBIBUS[435:1]

OR THE POET IN THE CLOUDS

O! it is pleasant, with a heart at ease, Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies, To make the s.h.i.+fting clouds be what you please, Or let the easily persuaded eyes Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould 5 Of a friend's fancy; or with head bent low And cheek aslant see rivers flow of gold 'Twixt crimson banks; and then, a traveller, go From mount to mount through Cloudland, gorgeous land!

Or list'ning to the tide, with closed sight, 10 Be that blind bard, who on the Chian strand By those deep sounds possessed with inward light, Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssee Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea.

1817.

FOOTNOTES:

[435:1] First published in _Felix Farley's Bristol Journal_ for February 7, 1818: and afterwards in _Blackwood's Magazine_ for November, 1819.

First collected in 1828: included in 1829 and 1834. A MS. in the possession of Major b.u.t.terworth of Carlisle is signed 'S. T. Coleridge, Little Hampton, Oct. 1818'. In a letter to Coleridge dated Jan. 10, 1820, Lamb asks, 'Who put your marine sonnet [i. e. A Sonnet written on the Sea Coast, vide _t.i.tle_] . . . in _Blackwood_?' F. Freiligrath in his Introduction to the Tauchnitz edition says that the last five lines are borrowed from s...o...b..rg's _An das Meer_; vide Appendices of this edition.

LINENOTES:

t.i.tle] Fancy, &c. A Sonnet Composed by the Seaside, October 1817. F. F.: Fancy in Nubibus. A Sonnet, composed on the Sea Coast 1819.

[4] let] bid 1819.

[5] Own] Owe F. F. 1818. quaint] strange 1819.

[6] head] heart MS.: head bow'd low 1819.

[9] through] o'er 1819.

THE TEARS OF A GRATEFUL PEOPLE[436:1]

A Hebrew Dirge and Hymn, chaunted in the Great Synagogue. St. James' pl.

Aldgate, on the Day of the Funeral of King George III. of blessed memory. By Hyman Hurwitz of Highgate, Translated by a Friend.

_Dirge_

Oppress'd, confused, with grief and pain, And inly shrinking from the blow, In vain I seek the dirgeful strain, The wonted words refuse to flow.

A fear in every face I find, 5 Each voice is that of one who grieves; And all my Soul, to grief resigned, Reflects the sorrow it receives.