The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - LightNovelsOnl.com
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FOOTNOTES:
[71:2] First published in the _Fall of Robespierre_, 1795: included (as 'Song', p. 13) in 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829, and 1834.
LINENOTES:
t.i.tle] Effusion xxv. 1796.
ON A DISCOVERY MADE TOO LATE[72:1]
Thou bleedest, my poor Heart! and thy distress Reasoning I ponder with a scornful smile And probe thy sore wound sternly, though the while Swoln be mine eye and dim with heaviness.
Why didst thou listen to Hope's whisper bland? 5 Or, listening, why forget the healing tale, When Jealousy with feverous fancies pale Jarr'd thy fine fibres with a maniac's hand?
Faint was that Hope, and rayless!--Yet 'twas fair And sooth'd with many a dream the hour of rest: 10 Thou should'st have lov'd it most, when most opprest, And nurs'd it with an agony of care, Even as a mother her sweet infant heir That wan and sickly droops upon her breast!
1794.
FOOTNOTES:
[72:1] First published in 1796: _Selection of Sonnets_, _Poems_ 1796: in 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829, and 1834. It was sent in a letter to Southey, dated October 21, 1794. (_Letters of S. T. C._, 1895, i. 92.)
LINENOTES:
t.i.tle] Effusion xix. 1796 (in 'Contents' _To my Heart_): Sonnet II. On a Discovery made too late 1797, 1803, and again in P. and D. W., 1877-80: Sonnet xi. 1828, 1829, 1834.
[2-4]
Doth Reason ponder with an anguish'd smile Probing thy sore wound sternly, tho' the while Her eye be swollen and dim with heaviness.
Letter, 1794.
[6] the] its Letter, 1794.
[7] feverous] feverish 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829.
[14] wan] pale Letter, 1794.
TO THE AUTHOR OF 'THE ROBBERS'[72:2]
Schiller! that hour I would have wish'd to die, If thro' the shuddering midnight I had sent From the dark dungeon of the Tower time-rent That fearful voice, a famish'd Father's cry-- Lest in some after moment aught more mean 5 Might stamp me mortal! A triumphant shout Black Horror scream'd, and all her _goblin_ rout Diminish'd shrunk from the more withering scene!
Ah! Bard tremendous in sublimity!
Could I behold thee in thy loftier mood 10 Wandering at eve with finely-frenzied eye Beneath some vast old tempest-swinging wood!
Awhile with mute awe gazing I would brood: Then weep aloud in a wild ecstasy!
? 1794.
FOOTNOTES:
[72:2] First published in 1796: included in _Selection of Sonnets_, 1796: in 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829, and 1834. The following 'Note' (Note 6, pp. 180, 181) was printed in 1796, and appears again in 1797 as a footnote, p. 83:--'One night in Winter, on leaving a College-friend's room, with whom I had supped, I carelessly took away with me "The Robbers", a drama, the very name of which I had never before heard of:--A Winter midnight--the wind high--and "The Robbers" for the first time!--The readers of Schiller will conceive what I felt. Schiller introduces no supernatural beings; yet his human beings agitate and astonish more than all the _goblin_ rout--even of Shakespeare.' See for another account of the midnight reading of 'The Robbers', Letter to Southey, November [6], 1794, _Letters of S. T. C._, 1895, i. 96, 97.
In the _Selection of Sonnets_, 1796, this note was reduced to one sentence. 'Schiller introduces no Supernatural Beings.' In 1803 the note is omitted, but a footnote to line 4 is appended: 'The Father of Moor in the Play of the Robbers.'
LINENOTES:
t.i.tle] Effusion xx. To the Author, &c. [To 'Schiller', _Contents_] 1796: Sonnet viii. To the Author of 'The Robbers' 1797: Sonnet xv. 1803: Sonnet xii. To the Author of the Robbers 1828, 1829, 1834.
_Lines 1-4_ are printed in the reverse order (_4_, _3_, _2_, _1_).
Selections.
[5-6]
That in no after moment aught, less vast Might stamp me human!
Selections.
That in no after moment aught less vast Might stamp me mortal!
1797, 1803.
[8] From the more with'ring scene diminish'd past. Selections, 1797, 1803.
MELANCHOLY[73:1]
A FRAGMENT
Stretch'd on a moulder'd Abbey's broadest wall, Where ruining ivies propp'd the ruins steep-- Her folded arms wrapping her tatter'd pall, [73:2]Had Melancholy mus'd herself to sleep.
The fern was press'd beneath her hair, The dark green Adder's Tongue[74:1] was there; And still as pa.s.s'd the flagging sea-gale weak, The long lank leaf bow'd fluttering o'er her cheek.
That pallid cheek was flush'd: her eager look Beam'd eloquent in slumber! Inly wrought, 10 Imperfect sounds her moving lips forsook, And her bent forehead work'd with troubled thought.
Strange was the dream----
? 1794.
