[46:1] Letters of S. T. C., 1895, i. p. 55.

LINENOTES:

Title] On presenting a moss rose to Miss F. Nesbitt. MS. (pencil). Effusion xxvi. 1796.

[5]

beamy] lucent MS. E: lucid Letter, 1793.

[6]

lucent] changing MS. E: mingled Letter, 1793.

[12]
On lovely Nesbitt's breast. MS. (pencil).

On Angelina's breast. Letter, 1793.

On spotless Anna's breast. MS. E.

[Probably Anna Buclé, afterwards Mrs. Cruikshank.]

[13]

But when all reckless Letter, 1793.

[14]

prisoner] slumberer Letter, 1793.

[16]

faery] angry Letter, 1793.

[21-2]
'And, O', he cried, 'What charms refined
 This magic throne endear

Letter, 1793, MS. E.

[23]

Another Love may Letter, 1793.

KISSES[46:2]

Cupid, if storying Legends tell aright,
 Once fram'd a rich Elixir of Delight.
 A Chalice o'er love-kindled flames he fix'd,
 And in it Nectar and Ambrosia mix'd:
 With these the magic dews which Evening brings, 5
 Brush'd from the Idalian star by faery wings:
 Each tender pledge of sacred Faith he join'd,
 Each gentler Pleasure of th' unspotted mind—
 [47]Day-dreams, whose tints with sportive brightness glow,
 And Hope, the blameless parasite of Woe. 10
 The eyeless Chemist heard the process rise,
 The steamy Chalice bubbled up in sighs;
 Sweet sounds transpired, as when the enamour'd Dove
 Pours the soft murmuring of responsive Love.
 The finish'd work might Envy vainly blame, 15
 And 'Kisses' was the precious Compound's name.
 With half the God his Cyprian Mother blest,
 And breath'd on Sara's lovelier lips the rest.

1793.

FOOTNOTES:

[46:2] First published in 1796: included in 1797 (Supplement), 1803, and 1844. Three MSS. are extant, (1) as included in a letter to George Coleridge, Aug. 5, 1793; (2) as written in pencil in a copy of Langhorne's Collins in 1793; (3) MS. E. Poems, 1796 (Note 7, p. 181), and footnotes in 1797 and 1803, supply the original Latin:

Effinxit quondam blandum meditata laborem
 Basia lascivâ Cypria Diva manu.
 Ambrosiae succos occultâ temperat arte,
 Fragransque infuso nectare tingit opus.
 Sufficit et partem mellis, quod subdolus olim
 Non impune favis surripuisset Amor.
 Decussos violae foliis admiscet odores
 Et spolia aestivis plurima rapta rosis.
 Addit et illecebras et mille et mille lepores,
 Et quot Acidalius gaudia Cestus habet.
 Ex his composuit Dea basia; et omnia libens
 Invenias nitidae sparsa per ora Cloës.

Carm[ina] Quad[ragesimalia], vol. ii.

LINENOTES:

Title] Cupid turn'd Chymist Letter, 1793, Pencil. The Compound MS. E: Effusion xxvi. 1796: The Composition of a Kiss 1797: Kisses 1803, 1844, 1852.

[1]

storying] ancient Pencil.

[3]

Chalice] cauldron Letter, 1793.

[[8]

gentler] gentle Pencil.

[9]
Gay Dreams whose tints with beamy brightness glow.

Letter, 1793, MS. E.

[9-10]
And 
 
 
Hopes the blameless parasites of Woe
Fond

Bristol MS.

And Dreams whose tints with beamy brightness glow.

Pencil, Bristol MS.

[11-12]
With joy he view'd his chymic process rise,
 The steaming cauldron bubbled up in sighs.

Letter, 1793.

[11-12]
the chymic process rise,
 The steaming chalice

Pencil, MS. E.

[11-12]
the chymic process rise,
 The charming cauldron

Bristol MS.

[14]
Murmuring] murmurs Letter, 1793.
Cooes the soft murmurs Pencil.
[15]
not Envy's self could blame Letter, 1793, Pencil.
  might blame. MS. E.
[17]

With part Letter, 1793, MS. E.

[18]
on Nesbitt's lovely lips the rest. Letter, 1793, Pencil.

on Mary's lovelier lips the rest. MS. E.

on lovely Nesbitt's lovely lips the rest. Bristol MS.

THE GENTLE LOOK[47:1]

Thou gentle Look, that didst my soul beguile,
 Why hast thou left me? Still in some fond dream
 Revisit my sad heart, auspicious Smile!
 As falls on closing flowers the lunar beam:
 What time, in sickly mood, at parting day 5
 I lay me down and think of happier years;
 [48]Of joys, that glimmer'd in Hope's twilight ray,
 Then left me darkling in a vale of tears.
 O pleasant days of Hope—for ever gone!
 Could I recall you!—But that thought is vain. 10
 Availeth not Persuasion's sweetest tone
 To lure the fleet-wing'd Travellers back again:
 Yet fair, though faint, their images shall gleam
 Like the bright Rainbow on a willowy stream.[48:1]

? 1793.

FOOTNOTES:

[47:1] First published in 1796: included in 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829, and 1834. The 'four last lines' of the Sonnet as sent to Southey, on Dec. 11, 1794, were written by Lamb. Letters of S. T. C., 1895, i. 111, 112.

[48:1] Compare ll. 13, 14 with ll. 13, 14 of Anna and Harland and ll. 17, 18 of Recollection. Vide Appendix.

LINENOTES:

Title] Irregular Sonnet MS. E: Effusion xiv. 1796: Sonnet III. 1797, 1803: Sonnet viii. 1828, 1829, 1834: The Smile P. W. 1885: The Gentle Look P. W. 1893.

[1]

Thou] O Letter, 1794.

[9]

gone] flown MS. E.

[10]

you] one Letter, 1794.

[13-14]
Anon they haste to everlasting Night,
 Nor can a Giant's arm arrest them in their flight Letter, 1794.

On on, &c., MS. E.

SONNET[48:2]

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!

? 1793.

FOOTNOTES:

[48:2] Lines 2-11 were first published in the Watchman, No. V, April 2, 1796, as lines 17-26 of Recollection. First published, as a whole, in Selection of Sonnets, 1796, included in 1797, 1803, Sibylline Leaves, 1828, 1829, and 1834.

LINENOTES:

Title] Sonnet No. IV. To the, &c., 1797, 1803.

[3]

What blissful and what anguish'd hours Watchman, S. S., 1797, 1803.

[7]

ray] blaze Watchman, S. S., 1797, 1803.

[8]

thy] their S. L. Corrected in Errata, p. [xii].

[9]
The crossing plank, and margin's willowy maze Watchman.

Thy crossing plank, thy margin's willowy maze S. S., 1797, 1803.
[11]

On my way] to the gaze Watchman, S. S., 1797, 1803.

[14]

Ah! that I were once more, &c. S. L. Corrected in Errata, p. [xii].

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,
I trace her footsteps on the 
 
 
accustom'd
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!

1792.

LINES[51:1]

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.
 [52]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 moon-beams 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!
 [52:1]O (have I sigh'd) were mine the wizard's rod,
 Or mine the power of Proteus, changeful God!
 [53]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,
 And gaze upon her with a thousand eyes! 70
As when the Savage, who his drowsy frame
 Had bask'd beneath the Sun's unclouded flame,
 Awakes amid the troubles of the air,
 The skiey deluge, and white lightning's glare—
 Aghast he scours before the tempest's sweep, 75
 And sad recalls the sunny hour of sleep:—
 So tossed by storms along Life's wild'ring way,
 Mine eye reverted views that cloudless day,
 [54]When by my native brook I wont to rove,
 While Hope with kisses nurs'd the Infant Love. 80
Dear native brook! like Peace, so placidly
 Smoothing through fertile fields thy current meek!
 Dear native brook! where first young Poesy
 Stared wildly-eager in her noontide dream!
 Where blameless pleasures dimple Quiet's cheek, 85
 As water-lilies ripple thy slow stream!
 Dear native haunts! where Virtue still is gay,
 Where Friendship's fix'd star sheds a mellow'd ray,
 Where Love a crown of thornless Roses wears,
 Where soften'd Sorrow smiles within her tears; 90
 And Memory, with a Vestal's chaste employ,
 Unceasing feeds the lambent flame of joy!
 No more your sky-larks melting from the sight
 Shall thrill the attunéd heart-string with delight—
 No more shall deck your pensive Pleasures sweet 95
 With wreaths of sober hue my evening seat.
 Yet dear to Fancy's eye your varied scene
 Of wood, hill, dale, and sparkling brook between!
 Yet sweet to Fancy's ear the warbled song,
 That soars on Morning's wing your vales among. 100
Scenes of my Hope! the aching eye ye leave
 Like yon bright hues that paint the clouds of eve!
 Tearful and saddening with the sadden'd blaze
 Mine eye the gleam pursues with wistful gaze:
 Sees shades on shades with deeper tint impend, 105
 Till chill and damp the moonless night descend

1793.

FOOTNOTES:

[51:1] First published in 1796: included in 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829 and 1834. In Social Life at the English Universities, by Christopher Wordsworth, M.A., 1874, it is recorded that this poem was read by Coleridge to a party of college friends on November 7, 1793.

[52:1] Note to line 57. Poems, 1796, pp. 183-5:—I entreat the Public's pardon for having carelessly suffered to be printed such intolerable stuff as this and the thirteen following lines. They have not the merit even of originality: as every thought is to be found in the Greek Epigrams. The lines in this poem from the 27th to the 36th, I have been told are a palpable imitation of the passage from the 355th to the 370th line of the Pleasures of Memory Part 3. I do not perceive so striking a similarity between the two passages; at all events I had written the Effusion several years before I had seen Mr Rogers' Poem.—It may be proper to remark that the tale of Florio in the 'Pleasures of Memory' is to be found in Lochleven, a poem of great merit by Michael Bruce.—In Mr Rogers' Poem[52:A] the names are Florio and Julia; in the Lochleven Lomond and Levina—and this is all the difference. We seize the opportunity of transcribing from the Lochleven of Bruce the following exquisite passage, expressing the effects of a fine day on the human heart.

Fat on the plain, and mountain's sunny side
 Large droves of oxen and the fleecy flocks
 Feed undisturb'd; and fill the echoing air
 With Music grateful to their [the] Master's ear.
 The Traveller stops and gazes round and round
 O'er all the plains [scenes] that animate his heart
 With mirth and music. Even the mendicant
 Bow-bent with age, that on the old gray stone
 Sole-sitting suns him in the public way,
 Feels his heart leap, and to himself he sings.

[Poems by Michael Bruce, 1796, p. 94.]

[52:A] For Coleridge's retractation of the charge of plagiarism and apology to Rogers see 'Advertisement to Supplement of 1797', pp. 244, 245.

LINENOTES:

Title] Effusion xxxvi. Written in Early Youth, The Time, An Autumnal Evening 1796: Written in etc. 1803: An Effusion on an Autumnal Evening. Written in Early Youth 1797 (Supplement).

A first draft, headed 'An Effusion at Evening, Written in August, 1792' is included in the MS. volume presented to Mrs. Estlin in April, 1795 (vide ante, pp. 49, 50).

[28]

gleam] gleams 1796, 1797, 1803, 1893.

[51-3]
in Joy's bright nectar dips
 The flamy rose, and plants it on her lips!
 Tender, serene, and all devoid of guile,
 Soft is her soul, as sleeping infants' smile.
 She speaks, &c.

1796, 1803.

[54]

still those mazy notes 1796, 1803.

[55-6]
Sweet as th' angelic harps, whose rapturous falls
 Awake the soften'd echoes of Heaven's Halls.

1796, 1803.

[86]

thy] a 1796, 1803.

TO FORTUNE[54:1]

To the Editor of the 'Morning Chronicle'

Sir,—The following poem you may perhaps deem admissible into your journal—if not, you will commit it εἰς ἱερὸν μένος Ἡφαίστοιο.—I am, with more respect and gratitude than I ordinarily feel for Editors of Papers, your obliged, &c.,

Cantab.—S. T. C.

To Fortune

On buying a Ticket in the Irish Lottery

Composed during a walk to and from the Queen's Head, Gray's Inn Lane, Holborn, and Hornsby's and Co., Cornhill.

Promptress of unnumber'd sighs,
 O snatch that circling bandage from thine eyes!
 O look, and smile! No common prayer
 Solicits, Fortune! thy propitious care!
 For, not a silken son of dress, 5
 I clink the gilded chains of politesse,
 Nor ask thy boon what time I scheme
 Unholy Pleasure's frail and feverish dream;
 Nor yet my view life's dazzle blinds—
 Pomp!—Grandeur! Power!—I give you to the winds! 10
 Let the little bosom cold
 Melt only at the sunbeam ray of gold—
 My pale cheeks glow—the big drops start—
 The rebel Feeling riots at my heart!
 And if in lonely durance pent, 15
 Thy poor mite mourn a brief imprisonment—
 That mite at Sorrow's faintest sound
 Leaps from its scrip with an elastic bound!
 But oh! if ever song thine ear
 Might soothe, O haste with fost'ring hand to rear 20
 One Flower of Hope! At Love's behest,
 Trembling, I plac'd it in my secret breast:
 And thrice I've view'd the vernal gleam,
 Since oft mine eye, with Joy's electric beam,
 Illum'd it—and its sadder hue 25
 Oft moisten'd with the Tear's ambrosial dew!
 Poor wither'd floweret! on its head
 Has dark Despair his sickly mildew shed!
 But thou, O Fortune! canst relume
 Its deaden'd tints—and thou with hardier bloom 30
 May'st haply tinge its beauties pale,
 And yield the unsunn'd stranger to the western gale!

1793.

FOOTNOTES: