Читать книгу The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition) - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Страница 132

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Seraphs! around th’ Eternal’s seat who throng

With tuneful ecstasies of praise:

O! teach our feeble tongues like yours the song

Of fervent gratitude to raise —

Like you, inspired with holy flame 5

To dwell on that Almighty name

Who bade the child of Woe no longer sigh,

And Joy in tears o’erspread the widow’s eye.

Th’ all-gracious Parent hears the wretch’s prayer;

The meek tear strongly pleads on high; 10

Wan Resignation struggling with despair

The Lord beholds with pitying eye;

Sees cheerless Want unpitied pine,

Disease on earth its head recline,

And bids Compassion seek the realms of woe 15

To heal the wounded, and to raise the low.

She comes! she comes! the meek-eyed Power I see

With liberal hand that loves to bless;

The clouds of Sorrow at her presence flee;

Rejoice! rejoice! ye Children of Distress! 20

The beams that play around her head

Thro’ Want’s dark vale their radiance spread:

The young uncultur’d mind imbibes the ray,

And Vice reluctant quits th’ expected prey.

Cease, thou lorn mother! cease thy wailings drear; 25

Ye babes! the unconscious sob forego;

Or let full Gratitude now prompt the tear

Which erst did Sorrow force to flow.

Unkindly cold and tempest shrill

In Life’s morn oft the traveller chill, 30

But soon his path the sun of Love shall warm;

And each glad scene look brighter for the storm!

JULIA

Medio de fonte leporum

Surgit amari aliquid.

Julia was blest with beauty, wit, and grace:

Small poets lov’d to sing her blooming face.

Before her altars, lo! a numerous train

Preferr’d their vows; yet all preferr’d in vain,

Till charming Florio, born to conquer, came 5

And touch’d the fair one with an equal flame.

The flame she felt, and ill could she conceal

What every look and action would reveal.

With boldness then, which seldom fails to move,

He pleads the cause of Marriage and of Love: 10

The course of Hymeneal joys he rounds,

The fair one’s eyes danc’d pleasure at the sounds.

Nought now remain’d but ‘Noes’ — how little meant!

And the sweet coyness that endears consent.

The youth upon his knees enraptur’d fell: 15

The strange misfortune, oh! what words can tell?

Tell! ye neglected sylphs! who lap-dogs guard,

Why snatch’d ye not away your precious ward?

Why suffer’d ye the lover’s weight to fall

On the illfated neck of much-lov’d Ball? 20

The favourite on his mistress casts his eyes,

Gives a short melancholy howl, and — dies.

Sacred his ashes lie, and long his rest!

Anger and grief divide poor Julia’s breast.

Her eyes she fixt on guilty Florio first: 25

On him the storm of angry grief must burst.

That storm he fled: he wooes a kinder fair,

Whose fond affections no dear puppies share.

‘Twere vain to tell, how Julia pin’d away:

Unhappy Fair! that in one luckless day — 30

From future Almanacks the day be crost! —

At once her Lover and her Lap-dog lost.

QUAE NOCENT DOCENT

O! mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos!

Oh! might my ill-past hours return again!

No more, as then, should Sloth around me throw

Her soul-enslaving, leaden chain!

No more the precious time would I employ

In giddy revels, or in thoughtless joy, 5

A present joy producing future woe.

But o’er the midnight Lamp I’d love to pore,

I’d seek with care fair Learning’s depths to sound,

And gather scientific Lore:

Or to mature the embryo thoughts inclin’d, 10

That half-conceiv’d lay struggling in my mind,

The cloisters’ solitary gloom I’d round.

‘Tis vain to wish, for Time has ta’en his flight —

For follies past be ceas’d the fruitless tears:

Let follies past to future care incite. 15

Averse maturer judgements to obey

Youth owns, with pleasure owns, the Passions’ sway,

But sage Experience only comes with years.

THE NOSE

Ye souls unus’d to lofty verse

Who sweep the earth with lowly wing,

Like sand before the blast disperse —

A Nose! a mighty Nose I sing!

As erst Prometheus stole from heaven the fire 5

To animate the wonder of his hand;

Thus with unhallow’d hands, O Muse, aspire,

And from my subject snatch a burning brand!

So like the Nose I sing — my verse shall glow —

Like Phlegethon my verse in waves of fire shall flow! 10

Light of this once all darksome spot

Where now their glad course mortals run,

First-born of Sirius begot

Upon the focus of the Sun —

I’ll call thee —— ! for such thy earthly name — 15

What name so high, but what too low must be?

Comets, when most they drink the solar flame

Are but faint types and images of thee!

Burn madly, Fire! o’er earth in ravage run,

Then blush for shame more red by fiercer —— outdone! 20

I saw when from the turtle feast

The thick dark smoke in volumes rose!

I saw the darkness of the mist

Encircle thee, O Nose!

Shorn of thy rays thou shott’st a fearful gleam 25

(The turtle quiver’d with prophetic fright)

Gloomy and sullen thro’ the night of steam: —

So Satan’s Nose when Dunstan urg’d to flight,

Glowing from gripe of red-hot pincers dread

Athwart the smokes of Hell disastrous twilight shed! 30

The Furies to madness my brain devote —

In robes of ice my body wrap!

On billowy flames of fire I float,

Hear ye my entrails how they snap?

Some power unseen forbids my lungs to breathe! 35

What fire-clad meteors round me whizzing fly!

I vitrify thy torrid zone beneath,

Proboscis fierce! I am calcined! I die!

Thus, like great Pliny, in Vesuvius’ fire,

I perish in the blaze while I the blaze admire. 40

TO THE MUSE

Tho’ no bold flights to thee belong;

And tho’ thy lays with conscious fear,

Shrink from Judgement’s eye severe,

Yet much I thank thee, Spirit of my song!

For, lovely Muse! thy sweet employ 5

Exalts my soul, refines my breast,

Gives each pure pleasure keener zest,

And softens sorrow into pensive Joy.

From thee I learn’d the wish to bless,

From thee to commune with my heart; 10

From thee, dear Muse! the gayer part,

To laugh with pity at the crowds that press

Where Fashion flaunts her robes by Folly spun,

Whose hues gay-varying wanton in the sun.

DESTRUCTION OF THE BASTILE

I

Heard’st thou yon universal cry,

And dost thou linger still on Gallia’s shore?

Go, Tyranny! beneath some barbarous sky

Thy terrors lost and ruin’d power deplore!

What tho’ through many a groaning age 5

Was felt thy keen suspicious rage,

Yet Freedom rous’d by fierce Disdain

Has wildly broke thy triple chain,

And like the storm which Earth’s deep entrails hide,

At length has burst its way and spread the ruins wide. 10

***

IV

In sighs their sickly breath was spent; each gleam

Of Hope had ceas’d the long long day to cheer;

Or if delusive, in some flitting dream,

It gave them to their friends and children dear —

Awaked by lordly Insult’s sound 15

To all the doubled horrors round,

Oft shrunk they from Oppression’s band

While Anguish rais’d the desperate hand

For silent death; or lost the mind’s controll,

Thro’ every burning vein would tides of Frenzy roll. 20

V

But cease, ye pitying bosoms, cease to bleed!

Such scenes no more demand the tear humane;

I see, I see! glad Liberty succeed

With every patriot virtue in her train!

And mark yon peasant’s raptur’d eyes; 25

Secure he views his harvests rise;

No fetter vile the mind shall know,

And Eloquence shall fearless glow.

Yes! Liberty the soul of Life shall reign,

Shall throb in every pulse, shall flow thro’ every vein! 30

VI

Shall France alone a Despot spurn?

Shall she alone, O Freedom, boast thy care?

Lo, round thy standard Belgia’s heroes burn,

Tho’ Power’s bloodstain’d streamers fire the air,

And wider yet thy influence spread, 35

Nor e’er recline thy weary head,

Till every land from pole to pole

Shall boast one independent soul!

And still, as erst, let favour’d Britain be

First ever of the first and freest of the free! 40

LIFE

As late I journey’d o’er the extensive plain

Where native Otter sports his scanty stream,

Musing in torpid woe a Sister’s pain,

The glorious prospect woke me from the dream.

At every step it widen’d to my sight — 5

Wood, Meadow, verdant Hill, and dreary Steep,

Following in quick succession of delight, —

Till all — at once — did my eye ravish’d sweep!

May this (I cried) my course through Life portray!

New scenes of Wisdom may each step display, 10

And Knowledge open as my days advance!

Till what time Death shall pour the undarken’d ray,

My eye shall dart thro’ infinite expanse,

And thought suspended lie in Rapture’s blissful trance.