Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A storm of waves breaks foamy on the strand. 415

And hence, for times and seasons bloody and dark,

Short Peace shall skin the wounds of causeless War,

And War, his strainéd sinews knit anew,

Still violate the unfinished works of Peace.

But yonder look! for more demands thy view!’ 420

He said: and straightway from the opposite Isle

A vapour sailed, as when a cloud, exhaled

From Egypt’s fields that steam hot pestilence,

Travels the sky for many a trackless league,

Till o’er some death-doomed land, distant in vain, 425

It broods incumbent. Forthwith from the plain,

Facing the Isle, a brighter cloud arose,

And steered its course which way the vapour went.

The Maiden paused, musing what this might mean.

But long time passed not, ere that brighter cloud 430

Returned more bright; along the plain it swept;

And soon from forth its bursting sides emerged

A dazzling form, broad-bosomed, bold of eye,

And wild her hair, save where with laurels bound.

Not more majestic stood the healing God, 435

When from his bow the arrow sped that slew

Huge Python. Shriek’d Ambition’s giant throng,

And with them hissed the locust-fiends that crawled

And glittered in Corruption’s slimy track.

Great was their wrath, for short they knew their reign; 440

And such commotion made they, and uproar,

As when the mad Tornado bellows through

The guilty islands of the western main,

What time departing from their native shores,

Eboe, or Koromantyn’s plain of palms, 445

The infuriate spirits of the murdered make

Fierce merriment, and vengeance ask of Heaven.

Warmed with new influence, the unwholesome plain

Sent up its foulest fogs to meet the morn:

The Sun that rose on Freedom, rose in Blood! 450

‘Maiden beloved, and Delegate of Heaven!

(To her the tutelary Spirit said)

Soon shall the Morning struggle into Day,

The stormy Morning into cloudless Noon.

Much hast thou seen, nor all canst understand — 455

But this be thy best omen — Save thy Country!’

Thus saying, from the answering Maid he passed,

And with him disappeared the heavenly Vision.

‘Glory to Thee, Father of Earth and Heaven!

All-conscious Presence of the Universe! 460

Nature’s vast ever-acting Energy!

In will, in deed, Impulse of All to All!

Whether thy Love with unrefracted ray

Beam on the Prophet’s purgéd eye, or if

Diseasing realms the Enthusiast, wild of thought, 465

Scatter new frenzies on the infected throng,

Thou both inspiring and predooming both,

Fit instruments and best, of perfect end:

Glory to Thee, Father of Earth and Heaven!’

And first a landscape rose 470

More wild and waste and desolate than where

The white bear, drifting on a field of ice,

Howls to her sundered cubs with piteous rage

And savage agony.

LITERAL TRANSLATION.

Leaving the gates of Darkness, O Death! hasten thou to a Race yoked to

Misery! Thou wilt not be received with lacerations of Cheeks, nor with

funereal ululation, but with circling Dances and the joy of Songs. Thou

art terrible indeed, yet thou dwellest with LIBERTY, stern GENIUS! Borne

on thy dark pinions over the swelling of Ocean they return to their

native country. There by the side of fountains beneath Citron groves,

the Lovers tell to their Beloved, what horrors, being Men, they had

endured from Men.

Tho' these Lines may bear a sane sense, yet they are easily, and

more naturally interpreted with a very false and dangerous one. But I

was at that time one of the Mongrels, the Josephidites [Josephides =

the Son of Joseph], a proper name of distinction from those who believe

in, as well as believe Christ the only begotten Son of the Living God

before all Time. MS. Note by S. T. C.

To rear some realm with patient discipline,

Aye bidding PAIN, dark ERROR’S uncouth child,

Blameless Parenticide! his snakey scourge 125

Lift fierce against his Mother! Thus they make

Of transient Evil ever-during Good

Themselves probationary, and denied

Confess’d to view by preternatural deed

To o’erwhelm the will, save on some fated day 130

Headstrong, or with petition’d might from God.

And such perhaps the guardian Power whose ken

Still dwelt on France. He from the invisible World

Burst on the MAIDEN’S eye, impregning Air

With Voices and strange Shapes, illusions apt 135

Shadowy of Truth. [And first a landscape rose

More wild and waste and desolate, than where

The white bear drifting on a field of ice

Howls to her sunder’d cubs with piteous rage

And savage agony.] Mid the drear scene 140

A craggy mass uprear’d its misty brow,

Untouch’d by breath of Spring, unwont to know

Red Summer’s influence, or the chearful face

Of Autumn; yet its fragments many and huge

Astounded ocean with the dreadful dance 145

Of whirlpools numberless, absorbing oft

The blameless fisher at his perilous toil.

‘These are the fiends that o’er thy native land 260

Spread Guilt and Horror. Maid belov’d of Heaven!

Dar’st thou inspir’d by the holy flame of Love

Encounter such fell shapes, nor fear to meet

Their wrath, their wiles? O Maiden dar’st thou die?’

‘Father of Heaven: I will not fear.’ she said, 265

‘My arm is weak, but mighty is thy sword.’

She spake and as she spake the trump was heard

That echoed ominous o’er the streets of Rome,

When the first Caesar totter’d o’er the grave

By Freedom delv’d: the Trump, whose chilling blast 270

On Marathon and on Plataea’s plain

Scatter’d the Persian. — From his obscure haunt, &c.

‘Lo she goes!

To Orleans lo! she goes — the mission’d Maid!

The Victor Hosts wither beneath her arm!

And what are Crecy, Poictiers, Azincour 280

But noisy echoes in the ear of Pride?’

Ambition heard and startled on his throne;

But strait a smile of savage joy illum’d

His grisly features, like the sheety Burst

Of Lightning o’er the awaken’d midnight clouds 285

Wide flash’d. [For lo! a flaming pile reflects

Its red light fierce and gloomy on the face

Of SUPERSTITION and her goblin Son

Loud-laughing CRUELTY, who to the stake

A female fix’d, of bold and beauteous mien, 290

Her snow-white Limbs by iron fetters bruis’d

Her breast expos’d.] JOAN saw, she saw and knew

Her perfect image. Nature thro’ her frame

One pang shot shiv’ring; but, that frail pang soon

Dismiss’d, ‘Even so, &c.

But lo! no more was seen the ice-pil’d mount

And meteor-lighted dome. — An Isle appear’d

The Sea meantime his Billows darkest roll’d,

And each stain’d wave dash’d on the shore a corse.

His hideous features blended with the mist,

The long black locks of SLAUGHTER. PEACE beheld

And o’er the plain

The name of JUSTICE written on thy brow

Resplendent shone

A Vapor rose, pierc’d by the MAIDEN’S eye.

Guiding its course OPPRESSION sate within,

With terror pale and rage, yet laugh’d at times

Musing on Vengeance: trembled in his hand

A Sceptre fiercely-grasp’d. O’er Ocean westward

The Vapor sail’d

These images imageless, these Small-Capitals

constituting themselves Personifications, I despised even at

that time; but was forced to introduce them, to preserve the

connection with the machinery of the Poem, previously adopted

by Southey. S. T. C.