The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 175

We've fought for Peace, and conquer'd it at last, The rav'ning vulture's leg seems fetter'd fast!

Britons, rejoice! and yet be wary too: The chain may break, the clipt wing sprout anew.

First published in Cottle's _Early Recollections_, 1836, ii. 145. First collected 1890.

ANOTHER VERSION

We've conquered us a Peace, like lads true metalled: And Bankrupt _Nap's_ accounts seem all now settled.

_Ibid._ ii. 145. First collected 1893.

68

Money, I've heard a wise man say, Makes herself wings and flies away-- Ah! would she take it in her head To make a pair for me instead.

First published (from an MS.) in 1893.

69

MODERN CRITICS

No private grudge they need, no personal spite, The _viva sectio_ is its own delight!

All enmity, all envy, they disclaim, Disinterested thieves of our good name-- Cool, sober murderers of their neighbours' fame!

First published in _Biog. Lit._, 1817, ii. 118. First collected in _P.

W._, 1885, ii. 363.

70

WRITTEN IN AN ALb.u.m

Parry seeks the Polar ridge, Rhymes seeks S. T. Coleridge, Author of Works, whereof--tho' not in Dutch-- The public little knows--the publisher too much.

First published in 1834.

71

TO A LADY WHO REQUESTED ME TO WRITE A POEM UPON NOTHING

On nothing, f.a.n.n.y, shall I write?

Shall I not one charm of thee indite?

The Muse is most unruly, And vows to sing of what's more free, More soft, more beautiful than thee;-- And that is _Nothing_, truly!

First published in the _Gazette of Fas.h.i.+on_, Feb. 22, 1822. Reprinted (by Mr. Bertram Dobell) in _N. and Q._, 10th Series, vol. vi, p. 145.

Now collected for the first time.

72

SENTIMENTAL

The rose that blushes like the morn, Bedecks the valleys low; And so dost thou, sweet infant corn, My Angelina's toe.

But on the rose there grows a thorn That breeds disastrous woe; And so dost thou, remorseless corn, On Angelina's toe.

First published in _Lit. Rem._, i. 59. First collected _P. and D. W._, 1877, ii. 366.

73

So Mr. Baker heart did pluck-- And did a-courting go!

And Mr. Baker is a buck; For why? he _needs_ the _doe_.

First published in _Letters, Conversations, &c._, 1836, ii. 21. First collected in _P. and D. W._, 1877, ii. 373.

74

AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS

'A heavy wit shall hang at every lord,'

So sung Dan Pope; but 'pon my word, He was a story-teller, Or else the times have altered quite; For wits, or heavy, now, or light Hang each by a bookseller.

S. T. C.

First published in _News of Literature_, Dec. 10, 1825. See _Arch.

Constable and his Literary Correspondents_, 1873, iii. 482. First collected in 1893.

75

THE ALTERNATIVE

This way or that, ye Powers above me!

I of my grief were rid-- Did Enna either really love me, Or cease to think she did.

First published in _Lit. Rem._, i. 59. Included in _Essays, &c._, iii.

987. First collected in _P. W._, 1885, ii. 364.

76

In Spain, that land of Monks and Apes, The thing called Wine doth come from grapes, But on the n.o.ble River Rhine, The thing called Gripes doth come from Wine!