Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition)

SONNET: TO THE RIVER OTTER

Dear native Brook! wild Streamlet of the West!

How many various-fated years have past,

What happy and what mournful hours, since last

I skimm’d the smooth thin stone along thy breast,

Numbering its light leaps! yet so deep imprest 5

Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes

I never shut amid the sunny ray,

But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,

Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,

And bedded sand that vein’d with various dyes 10

Gleam’d through thy bright transparence! On my way,

Visions of Childhood! oft have ye beguil’d

Lone manhood’s cares, yet waking fondest sighs:

Ah! that once more I were a careless Child!

FIRST DRAFT: AN EFFUSION AT EVENING

WRITTEN IN AUGUST, 1792

Imagination, Mistress of my Love!

Where shall mine Eye thy elfin haunt explore?

Dost thou on yon rich Cloud thy pinions bright

Embathe in amber-glowing Floods of Light?

Or, wild of speed, pursue the track of Day 5

In other worlds to hail the morning Ray?

‘Tis time to bid the faded shadowy Pleasures move

On shadowy Memory’s wings across the Soul of Love;

And thine o’er Winter’s icy plains to fling

Each flower, that binds the breathing Locks of Spring, 10

When blushing, like a bride, from primrose Bower

She starts, awaken’d by the pattering Shower!

Now sheds the setting Sun a purple gleam,

Aid, lovely Sorc’ress! aid the Poet’s dream.

With faery wand O bid my Love arise, 15

The dewy brilliance dancing in her Eyes;

As erst she woke with soul-entrancing Mien

The thrill of Joy extatic yet serene,

When link’d with Peace I bounded o’er the Plain

And Hope itself was all I knew of Pain! 20

Propitious Fancy hears the votive sigh —

The absent Maiden flashes on mine Eye!

When first the matin Bird with startling Song

Salutes the Sun his veiling Clouds among,

{ accustom’d

I trace her footsteps on the { steaming Lawn, 25

I view her glancing in the gleams of Dawn!

When the bent Flower beneath the night-dew weeps

And on the Lake the silver Lustre sleeps,

Amid the paly Radiance soft and sad

She meets my lonely path in moonbeams clad. 30

With her along the streamlet’s brink I rove;

With her I list the warblings of the Grove;

And seems in each low wind her voice to float,

Lone-whispering Pity in each soothing Note!

As oft in climes beyond the western Main 35

Where boundless spreads the wildly-silent Plain,

The savage Hunter, who his drowsy frame

Had bask’d beneath the Sun’s unclouded Flame,

Awakes amid the tempest-troubled air,

The Thunder’s Peal and Lightning’s lurid glare — 40

Aghast he hears the rushing Whirlwind’s Sweep,

And sad recalls the sunny hour of Sleep!

So lost by storms along Life’s wild’ring Way

Mine Eye reverted views that cloudless Day,

When, —— ! on thy banks I joy’d to rove 45

While Hope with kisses nurs’d the infant Love!

Sweet —— ! where Pleasure’s streamlet glides

Fann’d by soft winds to curl in mimic tides;

Where Mirth and Peace beguile the blameless Day;

And where Friendship’s fixt star beams a mellow’d Ray; 50

Where Love a crown of thornless Roses wears;

Where soften’d Sorrow smiles within her tears;

And Memory, with a Vestal’s meek employ,

Unceasing feeds the lambent flame of Joy!

No more thy Sky Larks less’ning from my sight 55

Shall thrill th’ attunéd Heartstring with delight;

No more shall deck thy pensive Pleasures sweet

With wreaths of sober hue my evening seat!

Yet dear to [My] Fancy’s Eye thy varied scene

Of Wood, Hill, Dale and sparkling Brook between: 60

Yet sweet to [My] Fancy’s Ear the warbled song,

That soars on Morning’s wing thy fields among!

Scenes of my Hope! the aching Eye ye leave,

Like those rich Hues that paint the clouds of Eve!

Tearful and saddening with the sadden’d Blaze 65

Mine Eye the gleam pursues with wistful Gaze —

Sees Shades on Shades with deeper tint impend,

Till chill and damp the moonless Night descend!

LINES: ON AN AUTUMNAL EVENING

O thou wild Fancy, check thy wing! No more

Those thin white flakes, those purple clouds explore!

Nor there with happy spirits speed thy flight

Bath’d in rich amber-glowing floods of light;

Nor in yon gleam, where slow descends the day, 5

With western peasants hail the morning ray!

Ah! rather bid the perish’d pleasures move,

A shadowy train, across the soul of Love!

O’er Disappointment’s wintry desert fling

Each flower that wreath’d the dewy locks of Spring, 10

When blushing, like a bride, from Hope’s trim bower

She leapt, awaken’d by the pattering shower.

Now sheds the sinking Sun a deeper gleam,

Aid, lovely Sorceress! aid thy Poet’s dream!

With faery wand O bid the Maid arise, 15

Chaste Joyance dancing in her bright-blue eyes;

As erst when from the Muses’ calm abode

I came, with Learning’s meed not unbestowed;

When as she twin’d a laurel round my brow,

And met my kiss, and half return’d my vow, 20

O’er all my frame shot rapid my thrill’d heart,

And every nerve confess’d the electric dart.

O dear Deceit! I see the Maiden rise,

Chaste Joyance dancing in her bright-blue eyes!

When first the lark high-soaring swells his throat, 25

Mocks the tir’d eye, and scatters the loud note,

I trace her footsteps on the accustom’d lawn,

I mark her glancing mid the gleam of dawn.

When the bent flower beneath the night-dew weeps

And on the lake the silver lustre sleeps, 30

Amid the paly radiance soft and sad,

She meets my lonely path in moonbeams clad.

With her along the streamlet’s brink I rove;

With her I list the warblings of the grove;

And seems in each low wind her voice to float 35

Lone-whispering Pity in each soothing note!

Spirits of Love! ye heard her name! Obey

The powerful spell, and to my haunt repair.

Whether on clust’ring pinions ye are there,

Where rich snows blossom on the Myrtle-trees, 40

Or with fond languishment around my fair

Sigh in the loose luxuriance of her hair;

O heed the spell, and hither wing your way,

Like far-off music, voyaging the breeze!

Spirits! to you the infant Maid was given 45

Form’d by the wond’rous Alchemy of Heaven!

No fairer Maid does Love’s wide empire know,

No fairer Maid e’er heav’d the bosom’s snow.

A thousand Loves around her forehead fly;

A thousand Loves sit melting in her eye; 50

Love lights her smile — in Joy’s red nectar dips

His myrtle flower, and plants it on her lips.

She speaks! and hark that passion-warbled song —

Still, Fancy! still that voice, those notes prolong.

As sweet as when that voice with rapturous falls 55

Shall wake the soften’d echoes of Heaven’s Halls!Or mine the power of Proteus, changeful God!

A flower-entangled Arbour I would seem

To shield my Love from Noontide’s sultry beam: 60

Or bloom a Myrtle, from whose od’rous boughs

My Love might weave gay garlands for her brows.

When Twilight stole across the fading vale,

To fan my Love I’d be the Evening Gale;

Mourn in the soft folds of her swelling vest, 65

And flutter my faint pinions on her breast!

On Seraph wing I’d float a Dream by night,

To soothe my Love with shadows of delight: —

Or soar aloft to be the Spangled Skies,