The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 212

Nor let my words import more blame than needs.

The Tumult rose and ceas'd: for Peace is nigh Where Wisdom's Voice has found a list'ning Heart.

Amid the howl of more than wintry Storms 95 The Halcyon hears the voice of vernal Hours, Already on the wing!

Eve following eve, Dear tranquil Time, when the sweet sense of Home Becomes most sweet! hours for their own sake hail'd, And more desir'd, more precious, for thy song! 100 In silence list'ning, like a devout Child, My soul lay pa.s.sive; by thy various strain Driven as in surges now, beneath the stars, With momentary Stars of my own Birth, Fair constellated Foam still darting off 105 Into the darkness! now a tranquil Sea Outspread and bright, yet swelling to the Moon!

And when O Friend! my Comforter! my Guide!

Strong in thyself and powerful to give strength!

Thy long sustained Lay finally clos'd, 110 And thy deep Voice had ceas'd (yet thou thyself Wert still before mine eyes, and round us both That happy Vision of beloved Faces!

All, whom I deepliest love, in one room all!), Scarce conscious and yet conscious of it's Close, 115 I sate, my Being blended in one Thought, (Thought was it? or aspiration? or Resolve?) Absorb'd, yet hanging still upon the sound: And when I rose, I found myself in Prayer!

S. T. COLERIDGE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1081:1] Now first printed from an original MS. in the possession of Mr.

Gordon Wordsworth.

LINENOTES:

[37] controlling] ? impelling, ? directing.

M

YOUTH AND AGE

[Vide _ante_, p. 439.]

_MS. I_

10 SEPT. 1823. WEDNESDAY MORNING, 10 O'CLOCK

On the Tenth Day of September, Eighteen hundred Twenty Three, Wednesday morn, and I remember Ten on the Clock the Hour to be [_The Watch and Clock do both agree_] 5

An _Air_ that whizzed d?? ???ef???? (right across the diameter of my Brain) exactly like a Hummel Bee, _alias_ Dumbeldore, the gentleman with Rappee Spenser (_sic_), with bands of Red, and Orange Plush Breeches, close by my ear, at once sharp and burry, right over the summit of Quantock [item of Skiddaw 10 (_erased_)] at earliest Dawn just between the Nightingale that I stopt to hear in the Copse at the Foot of Quantock, and the first Sky-Lark that was a Song-Fountain, das.h.i.+ng up and sparkling to the Ear's eye, in full column, or ornamented Shaft of sound in the order of Gothic Extravaganza, out of Sight, over 15 the Cornfields on the Descent of the Mountain on the other side--out of sight, tho' twice I beheld its _mute_ shoot downward in the suns.h.i.+ne like a falling star of silver:--

ARIA SPONTANEA

Flowers are lovely, Love is flower-like, Friends.h.i.+p is a shelt'ring tree-- 20 O the Joys, that came down shower-like, Of Beauty, Truth, and Liberty, When I was young, ere I was old!

[_O Youth that wert so glad, so bold, What quaint disguise hast thou put on? 25 Would'st make-believe that thou art gone?

O Youth! thy Vesper Bell_] has not yet toll'd.

Thou always were a Masker bold-- What quaint Disguise hast now put on?

To make believe that thou art gone! 30

O Youth, so true, so fair, so free, Thy Vesper-bell hath not yet toll'd, Thou always, &c.

Ah! was it not enough, that Thou In Thy eternal Glory should outgo me? 35 Would'st thou not Grief's sad Victory allow

Hope's a Breeze that robs the Blossoms Fancy feeds, and murmurs the Bee----

_MS. II_

1

Verse, that Breeze mid blossoms straying Where Hope clings feeding like a Bee.

Both were mine: Life went a Maying With Nature, Hope, and Poesy, When I was young.

_When_ I was young! ah woeful When!

Ah for the Change twixt now and then!

This House of Life, not built with hands Where now I sigh, where once I sung.

_Or_ [This snail-like House, not built with hands, This Body that does me grievous wrong.]

O'er Hill and dale and sounding Sands.

How lightly then it flash'd along-- Like those trim Boats, unknown of yore, On Winding Lakes and Rivers wide, That ask no aid of Sail or Oar, That fear no spite of Wind or Tide.

Pencil { Nought car'd this Body for wind or weather, { When youth and I liv'd in't together.

2

Flowers are lovely, Love is flower-like; Friends.h.i.+p is a sheltering Tree; O the joys that came down shower-like Of Beauty, Truth and Liberty When I was young 5 _When_ I was young, [*ah woeful when*]

[*Ah for the change twixt now and then*]

In Heat or Frost we car'd not whether Night and day we lodged together woeful when When I was young--ah [*words of agony*] 10 Ah for the change 'twixt now and then [*O youth my Home-Mate dear so long, so long:*]

I thought that thou and I were one I scarce believe that thou art gone Thou always wert a Masker bold I [*mark that change,*] in garb and size 15 heave the Breath Those grisled Locks I well behold But still thy Heart is in thine eyes What strange disguise hast now put on To make believe that thou art gone

_Or_ [O youth for years so many so sweet 20 It seem'd that Thou and I were one That still I nurse the fond deceit And scarce believe that thou art gone]

When I was young--ere I was old Ah! happy ere, ah! woeful When 25 When I was young, ah woeful when Which says that Youth and I are twain!

O Youth! for years so many and sweet 'Tis known that Thou and I were one I'll think it but a false conceit 30 [*Tis but a gloomy*]

It cannot be, [*I'll not believe*] that thou art gone Thy Vesper Bell has not yet toll'd always [*And*] thou wert [*still*] a masker bold What hast [*Some*] strange disguise [*thou'st*] now put on To make believe that thou art gone? 35 I see these Locks in silvery slips, This dragging gait, this alter'd size But spring-tide blossoms on thy Lips And [*the young Heart*] is in thy eyes tears take suns.h.i.+ne from Life is but Thought so think I will 40 That Youth and I are Housemates still.

Ere I was old Ere I was old! ah woeful ere Which tells me youth's no longer here!

O Youth, &c. 45 Dewdrops are the Gems of Morning, But the Tears of mournful Eve: Where no Hope is Life's a Warning me That only serves to make [*us*] grieve, Now I am old. 50