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And lo! the Great, the Rich, the Mighty Men,
The Kings and the Chief Captains of the World,
With all that fixed on high like stars of Heaven
Shot baleful influence, shall be cast to earth,
Vile and down-trodden, as the untimely fruit
Shook from the fig-tree by a sudden storm.
Even now the storm begins: each gentle name.
Faith and meek Piety, with fearful joy

1

Tremble far-off-for lo! the Giant Frenzy

Uprooting empires with his whirlwind arm.

Mocketh high Heaven; burst hideous from the cell
Where the old Hag, unconquerable, huge,
Creation's eyeless drudge, black Ruin, sits
Nursing the impatient earthquake.

O return!

Pure Faith! meek Piety! The abhorred Form2
Whose scarlet robe was stiff with earthly pomp,
Who drank iniquity in cups of gold,

310

315

320

325

Whose names were many and all blasphemous,

Hath met the horrible judgment! Whence that cry?
The mighty army of foul Spirits shrieked
Disherited of earth! For she hath fallen

On whose black front was written Mystery;

330

She that reeled heavily, whose wine was blood;

She that worked whoredom with the Daemon Power,

Brought forth and nurtured: mitred Atheism!

335

And from the dark embrace all evil things

And patient Folly who on bended knee

Gives back the steel that stabbed him; and pale Fear
Haunted by ghastlier shapings than surround
Moon-blasted Madness when he yells at midnight!
Return pure Faith! return meek Piety!

con

1 Alluding to the French Revolution 1834: The French Revolution 1796 : This passage alludes to the French Revolution: and the subsequent paragraph to the downfall of Religious Establishments. I am vinced that the Babylon of the Apocalypse does not apply to Rome exclusively; but to the union of Religion with Power and Wealth, wherever it is found. Footnote to line 320, 1797, to line 322, 1803.

? And there came one of the seven Angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, come hither! I will show unto thee the judgment of the great Whore, that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the carth have committed fornication, &c. Revelation of St. John the Divine, chapter the seventeenth. Note to 1.343. Notes, 1796, p. 175.

337 Hunted by ghastlier terrors 1796, Watchman. 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829.

Haunted] Hunted

The kingdoms of the world are your's: each heart
Self-governed, the vast family of Love

Raised from the common earth by common toil
Enjoy the equal produce. Such delights

As float to earth, permitted visitants!
When in some hour of solemn jubilee
The massy gates of Paradise are thrown

Wide open, and forth come in fragments wild
Sweet echoes of unearthly melodies,

And odours snatched from beds of Amaranth,
And they, that from the crystal river of life
Spring up on freshened wing, ambrosial gales!
The favoured good man in his lonely walk
Perceives them, and his silent spirit drinks
Strange bliss which he shall recognise in heaven.
And such delights, such strange beatitudes
Seize on my young anticipating heart

340

345

350

355

For in his own and in his Father's might

When that blest future rushes on my view!

Old Ocean claps his hands! The mighty Dead
Rise to new life, whoe'er from earliest time

Lead up their mystic dance, the Desert shouts !

The Saviour comes! While as the Thousand Years'

360

With conscious zeal had urged Love's wondrous plan,
Coadjutors of God. To Milton's trump

The Millenium :-in which I suppose, that Man will continue to enjoy the highest glory, of which his human nature is capable.-That all who in past ages have endeavoured to ameliorate the state of man will rise and enjoy the fruits and flowers, the imperceptible seeds of which they had sown in their former Life: and that the wicked will during the same period, be suffering the remedies adapted to their several bad habits. I suppose that this period will be followed by the passing away of this Earth and by our entering the state of pure intellect; when all Creation shall rest from its labours. Footnote to line 365, 1797, to line 367, 1803.

345-8

When on some solemn Jubilee of Saints
The sapphire-blazing gates of Paradise

Are thrown wide open, and thence voyage forth

Detachments wild of seraph-warbled airs 1796, Watchman. 355 beatitudes] beatitude 1796, Watchman, 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829. 356 Seize on] Have seiz'd Watchman.

359-61

The SAVIOUR comes! While as to solemn strains,
The THOUSAND YEARS lead up their mystic dance
Old OCEAN claps his hands! the DESERT shouts!
And soft gales wafted from the haunts of spring
Melt the primaeval North! The Mighty Dead 1796.

The high groves of the renovated Earth
Unbosom their glad echoes: inly hushed,
Adoring Newton his serener eye

Raises to heaven: and he of mortal kind
Wisest, he first who marked the ideal tribes
Up the fine fibres through the sentient brain.
Lo! Priestley there, patriot, and saint, and sage,
Him, full of years, from his loved native land
Statesmen blood-stained and priests idolatrous
By dark lies maddening the blind multitude
Drove with vain hate. Calm, pitying he retired,
And mused expectant on these promised years.

365

370

375

0 Years! the blest pre-eminence of Saints!
Ye sweep athwart my gaze, so heavenly bright,
The wings that veil the adoring Seraphs' eyes,
What time they bend before the Jasper Throne 2
Reflect no lovelier hues! Yet ye depart,
And all beyond is darkness! Heights most strange,
Whence Fancy falls, fluttering her idle wing.
For who of woman born may paint the hour,
When seized in his mid course, the Sun shall wane

380

385

1 David Hartley. [Footnote to line 392, 1796, to line 375, 1797, to line 380, 1803 reprinted in 1828, 1829, and 1834.]

2 Rev. chap. iv. v. 2 and 3.-And immediately I was in the Spirit : and behold, a Throne was set in Heaven and one sat on the Throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone, &c. [Footnote to line 386, 1797, to line 389, 1803: reprinted in 1828, 1829, and 1834.]

365

370-2

378-80

The odorous groves of Earth reparadis'd 1796.
Down the fine fibres from the sentient brain

Roll subtly-surging. Pressing on his steps

Lo! PRIESTLEY there, Patriot, and Saint, and Sage
Whom that my fleshly eye hath never seen

A childish pang of impotent regret

Hath thrill'd my heart. Him from his native land 1796.
Up the fine fibres thro' the sentient brain

Pass in fine surges. Pressing on his steps
Lo! Priestley there 1803.

Sweeping before the rapt prophetic Gaze
Bright as what glories of the jasper throne

Stream from the gorgeous and face-veiling plumes
Of Spirits adoring! Ye blest years! must end 1796.

380 they bend] he bends 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829.

Making noon ghastly! Who of woman born
May image in the workings of his thought,
How the black-visaged, red-eyed Fiend outstretched 1
Beneath the unsteady feet of Nature groans,

In feverous slumbers-destined then to wake,
When fiery whirlwinds thunder his dread name
And Angels shout, Destruction! How his arm
The last great Spirit lifting high in air
Shall swear by Him, the ever-living One,
Time is no more!

Believe thou, O my soul, 2

Life is a vision shadowy of Truth;

390

395

And vice, and anguish, and the wormy grave,

Shapes of a dream! The veiling clouds retire,
And lo! the Throne of the redeeming God
Forth flashing unimaginable day

400

Wraps in one blaze earth, heaven, and deepest hell.

Contemplant Spirits! ye that hover o'er

With untired gaze the immeasurable fount
Ebullient with creative Deity!

And ye of plastic power, that interfused
Roll through the grosser and material mass
In organizing surge! Holies of God!

405

(And what if Monads of the infinite mind?)

I haply journeying my immortal course

Shall sometime join your mystic choir! Till then

410

I discipline my young and novice thought

In ministeries of heart-stirring song,

And aye on Meditation's heaven-ward wing

Soaring aloft I breathe the empyreal air
Of Love, omnific, omnipresent Love,

415

1 The final Destruction impersonated. [Footnote to line 394, 1797, to line 396, 1803: reprinted in 1828, 1829, and 1834.]

2 This paragraph is intelligible to those, who, like the Author, believe and feel the sublime system of Berkley (sic); and the doctrine of the final Happiness of all men. Footnote to line 402, 1797, to line 405, 1803.

387 May image in his wildly-working thought 1796: May image, how the red-eyed Fiend outstretcht 1803. 390 feverous] feverish 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829. Between 391, 392 DESTRUCTION! when the Sons of Morning shout, The Angels shout, DESTRUCTION 1803.

Spirit 1796. 400 om. 1803. 401 blaze] Light 1803.

noviciate 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829.

393 The Mighty 411 and novice]

Whose day-spring rises glorious in my soul.
As the great Sun, when he his influence

Sheds on the frost-bound waters-The glad stream
Flows to the ray and warbles as it flows.

1794-1796.

MONODY ON THE DEATH OF CHATTERTON 1

O WHAT a wonder seems the fear of death,
Seeing how gladly we all sink to sleep,
Babes, Children, Youths, and Men,

Night following night for threescore years and ten!
But doubly strange, where life is but a breath
To sigh and pant with, up Want's rugged steep.

Away, Grim Phantom! Scorpion King, away!
Reserve thy terrors and thy stings display

For coward Wealth and Guilt in robes of State!
Lo! by the grave I stand of one, for whom
A prodigal Nature and a niggard Doom

(That all bestowing, this withholding all)

Made each chance knell from distant spire or dome
Sound like a seeking Mother's anxious call,
Return, poor Child! Home, weary Truant, home!

5

ΤΟ

15

'The Monody', &c., dated in eds. 1796, 1797, 1803, 'October, 1794,' was first published at Cambridge in 1794, in Poems, By Thomas Rowley [i. e. Chatterton] and others edited by Lancelot Sharpe (pp. XXV-xxviii). An Introductory Note was prefixed :-'The Editor thinks himself happy in the permission of an ingenious friend to insert the following Monody.' The variants marked 1794 are derived from that work. The 'Monody' was not included in Sibylline Leaves, 1817. For MS. variants vide ante, Monody', &c., Christ's Hospital Version.

Coleridge told Cottle, May 27, 1814 that lines 1-4 were written when he was a mere boy' (Reminiscences, 1847, p. 348); and, again, April 22, 1819, he told William Worship that they were written in his thirteenth

1-15 When faint and sad o'er Sorrow's desart wild
Slow journeys onward, poor Misfortune's child;
When fades each lovely form by Fancy drest,
And inly pines the self-consuming breast;
(No scourge of scorpions in thy right arm dread,
No helméd terrors nodding o'er thy head,)
Assume, O DEATH! the cherub wings of PEACE,
And bid the heartsick Wanderer's Anguish cease.

1794, 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828.

[Lines 1-15 of the text were first printed in 1829.]

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