The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 146

FOOTNOTES:

[420:1] First published in _Remorse_, 1813. First collected, 1844.

LINENOTES:

_An Invocation_--7 chaunter] chaunters 1813, 1828, 1839, 1893.

[12] quiet] yellow 1813, 1828, 1829.

THE NIGHT-SCENE[421:1]

A DRAMATIC FRAGMENT

_Sandoval._ You loved the daughter of Don Manrique?

_Earl Henry._ Loved?

_Sand._ Did you not say you wooed her?

_Earl H._ Once I loved Her whom I dared not woo!

_Sand._ And wooed, perchance, One whom you loved not!

_Earl H._ Oh! I were most base, Not loving Oropeza. True, I wooed her, 5 Hoping to heal a deeper wound; but she Met my advances with impa.s.sioned pride, That kindled love with love. And when her sire, Who in his dream of hope already grasped The golden circlet in his hand, rejected 10 My suit with insult, and in memory Of ancient feuds poured curses on my head, Her blessings overtook and baffled them!

But thou art stern, and with unkindly countenance Art inly reasoning whilst thou listenest to me. 15

_Sand._ Anxiously, Henry! reasoning anxiously.

But Oropeza--

_Earl H._ Blessings gather round her!

Within this wood there winds a secret pa.s.sage, Beneath the walls, which opens out at length Into the gloomiest covert of the garden.-- 20 The night ere my departure to the army, She, nothing trembling, led me through that gloom, And to that covert by a silent stream, Which, with one star reflected near its marge, Was the sole object visible around me. 25 No leaflet stirred; the air was almost sultry; So deep, so dark, so close, the umbrage o'er us!

No leaflet stirred;--yet pleasure hung upon The gloom and stillness of the balmy night-air.

A little further on an arbour stood, 30 Fragrant with flowering trees--I well remember What an uncertain glimmer in the darkness Their snow-white blossoms made--thither she led me, To that sweet bower! Then Oropeza trembled-- I heard her heart beat--if 'twere not my own. 35

_Sand._ A rude and soaring note, my friend!

_Earl H._ Oh! no!

I have small memory of aught but pleasure.

The inquietudes of fear, like lesser streams Still flowing, still were lost in those of love: So love grew mightier from the fear, and Nature, 40 Fleeing from Pain, sheltered herself in Joy.

The stars above our heads were dim and steady, Like eyes suffused with rapture. Life was in us: We were all life, each atom of our frames A living soul--I vowed to die for her: 45 With the faint voice of one who, having spoken, Relapses into blessedness, I vowed it: That solemn vow, a whisper scarcely heard, A murmur breathed against a lady's ear.

Oh! there is joy above the name of pleasure. 50 Deep self-possession, an intense repose.

_Sand. (with a sarcastic smile)._ No other than as eastern sages paint, The G.o.d, who floats upon a Lotos leaf, Dreams for a thousand ages; then awaking, Creates a world, and smiling at the bubble, 55 Relapses into bliss.

_Earl H._ Ah! was that bliss Feared as an alien, and too vast for man?

For suddenly, impatient of its silence, Did Oropeza, starting, grasp my forehead.

I caught her arms; the veins were swelling on them. 60 Through the dark bower she sent a hollow voice;-- 'Oh! what if all betray me? what if thou?'

I swore, and with an inward thought that seemed The purpose and the substance of my being, I swore to her, that were she red with guilt, 65 I would exchange my unblenched state with hers.-- Friend! by that winding pa.s.sage, to that bower I now will go--all objects there will teach me Unwavering love, and singleness of heart.

Go, Sandoval! I am prepared to meet her-- 70 Say nothing of me--I myself will seek her-- Nay, leave me, friend! I cannot bear the torment And keen inquiry of that scanning eye.--

[_Earl Henry retires into the wood._

_Sand. (alone)._ O Henry! always striv'st thou to be great By thine own act--yet art thou never great 75 But by the inspiration of great pa.s.sion.

The whirl-blast comes, the desert-sands rise up And shape themselves; from Earth to Heaven they stand, As though they were the pillars of a temple, Built by Omnipotence in its own honour! 80 But the blast pauses, and their shaping spirit Is fled: the mighty columns were but sand, And lazy snakes trail o'er the level ruins!

1813.

FOOTNOTES:

[421:1] First published in its present state in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834. For an earlier draft, forming part of an 'Historic Drama in Five Acts' (unfinished) ent.i.tled _The Triumph of Loyalty_, 1801, vide Appendices of this edition. A prose sketch without t.i.tle or heading is contained in one of Coleridge's earliest notebooks.

LINENOTES:

[14] unkindly] unkindling 1893.

[23] And to the covert by that silent stream S. L., corrected in _Errata_, p. [xi].

[24] near] o'er S. L., corrected in _Errata_, p. [xi].

A HYMN[423:1]

My Maker! of thy power the trace In every creature's form and face The wond'ring soul surveys: Thy wisdom, infinite above Seraphic thought, a Father's love 5 As infinite displays!

From all that meets or eye or ear, There falls a genial holy fear Which, like the heavy dew of morn, Refreshes while it bows the heart forlorn! 10

Great G.o.d! thy works how wondrous fair!

Yet sinful man didst thou declare The whole Earth's voice and mind!

Lord, ev'n as Thou all-present art, O may we still with heedful heart 15 Thy presence know and find!

Then, come what will, of weal or woe, Joy's bosom-spring shall steady flow; For though 'tis Heaven THYSELF to see, Where but thy _Shadow_ falls, Grief cannot be!-- 20

1814.

FOOTNOTES:

[423:1] First published in _Poems_, 1852. The MS. was placed in the hands of the Editors by J. W. Wilkins, Esq., of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

'The accompanying autograph,' writes Mr. Wilkins, 'dated 1814, and addressed to Mrs. Hood of Brunswick Square, was given not later than the year 1817 to a relative of my own who was then residing at Clifton (and was, at the time at which it pa.s.sed into his hands, an attendant on Mr.