The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 89

Yes, while I stood and gazed, my temples bare, And shot my being through earth, sea, and air, Possessing all things with intensest love, O Liberty! my spirit felt thee there. 105

_February_, 1798.

FOOTNOTES:

[243:1] First published in the _Morning Post_, April 16, 1798: included in quarto pamphlet published by J. Johnson, 1798: reprinted in _Morning Post_, Oct. 14, 1802: included in _Poetical Register_ for 1808-9 (1812); in _Fears in Solitude, &c._, printed by Law and Gilbert, (?) 1812; in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817, 1828, 1829, and 1834. Lines 85, 98 are quoted from 'France, _a Palinodia_', in _Biog. Lit._, 1817, i. 195. To the first _Morning Post_ version (1798) an editorial note was prefixed:--

ORIGINAL POETRY.

The following excellent Ode will be in unison with the feelings of every friend to Liberty and foe to Oppression; of all who, admiring the French Revolution, detest and deplore the conduct of France towards Switzerland. It is very satisfactory to find so zealous and steady an advocate for Freedom as Mr. COLERIDGE concur with us in condemning the conduct of France towards the Swiss Cantons. Indeed his concurrence is not singular; we know of no Friend to Liberty who is not of his opinion.

What we most admire is the _avowal_ of his sentiments, and public censure of the unprincipled and atrocious conduct of France. The Poem itself is written with great energy. The second, third, and fourth stanzas contain some of the most vigorous lines we have ever read. The lines in the fourth stanza:--

'To scatter rage and trait'rous guilt Where Peace her jealous home had built,'

to the end of the stanza are particularly expressive and beautiful.

To the second _Morning Post_ version (1802) a note and Argument were prefixed:--

The following ODE was first published in this paper (in the beginning of the year 1798) in a less perfect state. The present state of France and Switzerland give it so peculiar an interest at the present time that we wished to re-publish it and accordingly have procured from the Author a corrected copy.

ARGUMENT.

'_First Stanza._ An invocation to those objects in Nature the contemplation of which had inspired the Poet with a devotional love of Liberty. _Second Stanza._ The exultation of the Poet at the commencement of the French Revolution, and his unqualified abhorrence of the Alliance against the Republic. _Third Stanza._ The blasphemies and horrors during the domination of the Terrorists regarded by the Poet as a transient storm, and as the natural consequence of the former despotism and of the foul superst.i.tion of Popery. Reason, indeed, began to suggest many apprehensions; yet still the Poet struggled to retain the hope that France would make conquests by no other means than by presenting to the observation of Europe a people more happy and better instructed than under other forms of Government. _Fourth Stanza._ Switzerland, and the Poet's recantation. _Fifth Stanza._ An address to Liberty, in which the Poet expresses his conviction that those feelings and that grand _ideal_ of Freedom which the mind attains by its contemplation of its individual nature, and of the sublime surrounding objects (see Stanza the First) do not belong to men, as a society, nor can possibly be either gratified or realised, under any form of human government; but belong to the individual man, so far as he is pure, and inflamed with the love and adoration of G.o.d in Nature.'

LINENOTES:

t.i.tle] The Recantation: an Ode. By S. T. Coleridge. 1798.

[1] and] or 1802.

[2] Veering your pathless march without controul 1802.

[5] night-birds] night bird's 1798, 4{o}, 1802: night-birds' S. L., 1828, 1829.

[6] slope] steep 1798, 4{o}, 1802, P. R.

[12] way] path 1802.

[23] smote air, earth, and sea] smote earth, air, and sea 1798, 4{o}, P.

R.: shook earth, air, and sea 1802.

[24] foot] feet 1798.

[26] lofty] eager 1802.

[27] sang] sung 1798, 4{o}, P. R.

[30] marched] mov'd 1802.

[34] the] that 1802.

[35] flung] spread 1802.

[41] But] I 1802.

[44] that sweet music] those sweet Paeans 1802.

[46] e'er was] ever 1798, 4{o}, P. R.

[51] deep-scarr'd] deep-scar'd 1798, 4{o}, P. R., S. L.

[53] insupportably] irresistibly 1802.

[54] ramp] tramp 1828, 1829, 1834, 1852. [Text of 1834 is here corrected.]

[58] reproached] rebuk'd 1802.

[59] said] cried 1802.

[62] compel] persuade 1802.

[63] call the Earth] lo! the earth's 1802.

[64] those] these 4{o}, P. R.

[66] caverns] cavern 1834, 1852. [Text of 1834 is here corrected.]

[69] And ye that flying spot the [your 1802] mountain-snows 1798: And ye that fleeing spot the mountain-snows 4{o}, P. R.

[75] stormy] native 1802.

[77] taint] stain 1802.

[79] patriot] patient 1798, 1802.

[80] Was this thy boast 1802.

[81] Kings in the low l.u.s.t] monarchs in the l.u.s.t 1802.

[85-9] The fifth stanza, which alluded to the African Slave Trade as conducted by this Country, and to the present Ministry and their supporters, has been omitted, and would have been omitted without remark if the commencing lines of the sixth stanza had not referred to it.

VI

Shall I with _these_ my patriot zeal combine?

No, Afric, no! they stand before my ken Loath'd as th' Hyaenas, that in murky den Whine o'er their prey and mangle while they whine, Divinest Liberty! with vain endeavour

1798.