Читать книгу The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition) - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Страница 130

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Hail! festal Easter that dost bring

Approach of sweetly-smiling spring,

When Nature’s clad in green:

When feather’d songsters through the grove

With beasts confess the power of love 5

And brighten all the scene.

Now youths the breaking stages load

That swiftly rattling o’er the road

To Greenwich haste away:

While some with sounding oars divide 10

Of smoothly-flowing Thames the tide

All sing the festive lay.

With mirthful dance they beat the ground,

Their shouts of joy the hills resound

And catch the jocund noise: 15

Without a tear, without a sigh

Their moments all in transports fly

Till evening ends their joys.

But little think their joyous hearts

Of dire Misfortune’s varied smarts 20

Which youthful years conceal:

Thoughtless of bitter-smiling Woe

Which all mankind are born to know

And they themselves must feel.

Yet he who Wisdom’s paths shall keep 25

And Virtue firm that scorns to weep

At ills in Fortune’s power,

Through this life’s variegated scene

In raging storms or calm serene

Shall cheerful spend the hour. 30

While steady Virtue guides his mind

Heav’n-born Content he still shall find

That never sheds a tear:

Without respect to any tide

His hours away in bliss shall glide 35

Like Easter all the year.

DURA NAVIS

To tempt the dangerous deep, too venturous youth,

Why does thy breast with fondest wishes glow?

No tender parent there thy cares shall sooth,

No much-lov’d Friend shall share thy every woe.

Why does thy mind with hopes delusive burn? 5

Vain are thy Schemes by heated Fancy plann’d:

Thy promis’d joy thou’lt see to Sorrow turn

Exil’d from Bliss, and from thy native land.

Hast thou foreseen the Storm’s impending rage,

When to the Clouds the Waves ambitious rise, 10

And seem with Heaven a doubtful war to wage,

Whilst total darkness overspreads the skies;

Save when the lightnings darting wingéd Fate

Quick bursting from the pitchy clouds between

In forkéd Terror, and destructive state 15

Shall shew with double gloom the horrid scene?

Shalt thou be at this hour from danger free?

Perhaps with fearful force some falling Wave

Shall wash thee in the wild tempestuous Sea,

And in some monster’s belly fix thy grave; 20

Or (woful hap!) against some wave-worn rock

Which long a Terror to each Bark had stood

Shall dash thy mangled limbs with furious shock

And stain its craggy sides with human blood.

Yet not the Tempest, or the Whirlwind’s roar 25

Equal the horrors of a Naval Fight,

When thundering Cannons spread a sea of Gore

And varied deaths now fire and now affright:

The impatient shout, that longs for closer war,

Reaches from either side the distant shores; 30

Whilst frighten’d at His streams ensanguin’d far

Loud on his troubled bed huge Ocean roars.

What dreadful scenes appear before my eyes!

Ah! see how each with frequent slaughter red,

Regardless of his dying fellows’ cries 35

O’er their fresh wounds with impious order tread!

From the dread place does soft Compassion fly!

The Furies fell each alter’d breast command;

Whilst Vengeance drunk with human blood stands by

And smiling fires each heart and arms each hand. 40

Should’st thou escape the fury of that day

A fate more cruel still, unhappy, view.

Opposing winds may stop thy luckless way,

And spread fell famine through the suffering crew,

Canst thou endure th’ extreme of raging Thirst 45

Which soon may scorch thy throat, ah! thoughtless Youth!

Or ravening hunger canst thou bear which erst

On its own flesh hath fix’d the deadly tooth?

Dubious and fluttering ‘twixt hope and fear

With trembling hands the lot I see thee draw, 50

Which shall, or sentence thee a victim drear,

To that ghaunt Plague which savage knows no law:

Or, deep thy dagger in the friendly heart,

Whilst each strong passion agitates thy breast,

Though oft with Horror back I see thee start, 55

Lo! Hunger drives thee to th’ inhuman feast.

These are the ills, that may the course attend —

Then with the joys of home contented rest —

Here, meek-eyed Peace with humble Plenty lend

Their aid united still, to make thee blest. 60

To ease each pain, and to increase each joy —

Here mutual Love shall fix thy tender wife,

Whose offspring shall thy youthful care employ

And gild with brightest rays the evening of thy Life.

NIL PEJUS EST CAELIBE VITÂ

What pleasures shall he ever find?

What joys shall ever glad his heart?

Or who shall heal his wounded mind,

If tortur’d by Misfortune’s smart?

Who Hymeneal bliss will never prove, 5

That more than friendship, friendship mix’d with love.

Then without child or tender wife,

To drive away each care, each sigh,

Lonely he treads the paths of life

A stranger to Affection’s tye: 10

And when from Death he meets his final doom

No mourning wife with tears of love shall wet his tomb.

Tho’ Fortune, Riches, Honours, Pow’r,

Had giv’n with every other toy,

Those gilded trifles of the hour, 15

Those painted nothings sure to cloy:

He dies forgot, his name no son shall bear

To shew the man so blest once breath’d the vital air.