By its own moods interprets, every where
Echo or mirror seeking of itself,

And makes a toy of Thought.

But O! how oft,

How oft, at school, with most believing mind,
Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars,

To watch that fluttering stranger! and as oft
With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt

Of my sweet birth-place, and the old church-tower,
Whose bells, the poor man's only music, rang
From morn to evening, all the hot Fair-day,
So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me
With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear
Most like articulate sounds of things to come!
So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt,
Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams!
And so I brooded all the following morn,
Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine eye
Fixed with mock study on my swimming book:
Save if the door half opened, and I snatched
A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up,

Ah me! amus'd by no such curious toys
Of the self-watching subtilizing mind,
How often in my early school-boy days
With most believing superstitious wish. 4o.

With which I can hold commune: haply hence,
That still the living spirit in our frame,

Which loves not to behold a lifeless thing,
Transfuses into all things its own Will,

And its own pleasures; sometimes with deep faith,
And sometimes with a wilful playfulness

That stealing pardon from our common sense
Smiles, as self-scornful, to disarm the scorn

For these wild reliques of our childish Thought,
That flit about, oft go, and oft return

Not uninvited.

Ah there was a time,

When oft amused by no such subtle toys
Of the self-watching mind, a child at school,
With most believing superstitious wish. P. R.

Between 19-23

To which the living spirit in our frame,
That loves not to behold a lifeless thing,

Transfuses its own pleasures, its own will. S. L. 1828.

25

35

40

27 had] have

26 To watch the stranger there! and oft belike 4o, P. R. 32 wild] sweet S. L. (for sweet read wild. Errata, S. L., p. [xii]).

P. R.

For still I hoped to see the stranger's face,
Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved,
My play-mate when we both were clothed alike!

Dear Babe, that sleepest cradled by my side,
Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm,
Fill up the interspersed vacancies

And momentary pauses of the thought!
My babe so beautiful! it thrills my.) heart
With tender gladness, thus to look at thee,
And think that thou shalt learn far other lore,
And in far other scenes! For I was reared
In the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim,
And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars.
But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breeze
By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags
Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,
Which image in their bulk both lakes and shores
And mountain crags: so shalt thou see and hear
The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible
Of that eternal language, which thy God
Utters, who from eternity doth teach
Himself in all, and all things in himself.
Great universal Teacher! he shall mould
Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask.

Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,
Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch

45

50

55

60

65

Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall 70
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost

Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet Moon.
February, 1798.1

The date is omitted in 1829 and in 1834.

Errata, S. L., p. [xii]). S. L., p. [xii]). 48

45 deep] dead 4o, P. R., S. L. (for dead read deep. 46 Fill] Fill'd S. L. (for Fill'd read Fill. Errata, thrills] fills 4, P. R., S. L. (for fills read thrills. Errata, S. L., p. [xii]). 67 redbreast] redbreasts 4o, P. R. trances] traces S. L. (for traces read trances. Errata, S. L., p. [xii]).

72-end

69 the nigh] all the 4o.

Or whether the secret ministery of cold
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,

FRANCE: AN ODE1

I

YE Clouds! that far above me float and pause,
Whose pathless march no mortal may controul!
Ye Ocean-Waves! that, wheresoe'er ye roll,

Yield homage only to eternal laws!

1 First published in the Morning Post, April 16, 1798: included in quarto pamphlet published by J. Johnson, 1798: reprinted in Morning Post, Oct. 14, 1802: included in Poetical Register for 1808-9 (1812); in Fears in Solitude, &c., printed by Law and Gilbert, (?) 1812; in Sibylline Leares, 1817, 1828, 1829, and 1834. Lines 85, 98 are quoted from 'France, a Palinodia', in Biog. Lit., 1817, i. 195. To the first Morning Post version

(1798) an editorial note was prefixed :

ORIGINAL POETRY.

The following excellent Ode will be in unison with the feelings of every friend to Liberty and foe to Oppression; of all who, admiring the French Revolution, detest and deplore the conduct of France towards Switzerland. It is very satisfactory to find so zealous and steady an advocate for Freedom as Mr. COLERIDGE concur with us in condemning the conduct of France towards the Swiss Cantons. Indeed his concurrence is not singular; we know of no Friend to Liberty who is not of his opinion. What we most admire is the avowal of his sentiments, and publie censure of the unprincipled and atrocious conduct of France. The Poem itself is written with great energy. The second, third, and fourth stanzas contain some of the most vigorous lines we have ever read. The lines in the fourth stanza :

'To scatter rage and trait'rous guilt

Where Peace her jealous home had built,'

to the end of the stanza are particularly expressive and beautiful.

To the second Morning Post version (1802) a note and Argument were prefixed :

The following ODE was first published in this paper (in the beginning of the year 1798) in a less perfect state. The present state of France and

Quietly shining to the quiet moon,

Like those, my babe! which ere tomorrow's warmth

Have capp'd their sharp keen points with pendulous drops,

Will catch thine eye, and with their novelty

Suspend thy little soul; then make thee shout,
And stretch and flutter from thy mother's arms

As thou wouldst fly for very eagerness. 4o.

France-Title] The Recantation: an Ode. By S. T. Coleridge. 1798. I and] or 1802.

2 Veering your pathless march without controul

Ye Woods! that listen to the night-birds singing,

Midway the smooth and perilous slope reclined,
Save when your own imperious branches swinging,
Have made a solemn music of the wind!
Where, like a man beloved of God,

Through glooms, which never woodman trod,
How oft, pursuing fancies holy,

My moonlight way o'er flowering weeds I wound,
Inspired, beyond the guess of folly,

By each rude shape and wild unconquerable sound!
O ye loud Waves! and O ye Forests high!
And O ye Clouds that far above me soared!
Thou rising Sun! thou blue rejoicing Sky!
Yea, every thing that is and will be free!
Bear witness for me, wheresoe'er ye be,
With what deep worship I have still adored
The spirit of divinest Liberty.

5

ΤΟ

15

20

Switzerland give it so peculiar an interest at the present time that we wished to re-publish it and accordingly have procured from the Author a corrected copy.

ARGUMENT.

'First Stanza. An invocation to those objects in Nature the contemplation of which had inspired the Poet with a devotional love of Liberty. Second Stanza. The exultation of the Poet at the commencement of the French Revolution, and his unqualified abhorrence of the Alliance against the Republic. Third Stanza. The blasphemies and horrors during the domination of the Terrorists regarded by the Poet as a transient storm, and as the natural consequence of the former despotism and of the foul superstition of Popery. Reason, indeed, began to suggest many apprehensions; yet still the Poet struggled to retain the hope that France would make conquests by no other means than by presenting to the observation of Europe a people more happy and better instructed than under other forms of Government. Fourth Stanza. Switzerland, and the Poet's recantation. Fifth Stanza. An address to Liberty, in which the Poet expresses his conviction that those feelings and that grand ideal of Freedom which the mind attains by its contemplation of its individual nature, and of the sublime surrounding objects (see Stanza the First) do not belong to men, as a society, nor can possibly be either gratified or realised, under any form of human government; but belong to the individual man, so far as he is pure, and inflamed with the love and adoration of God in Nature.'

5 night-birds] night bird's 1798, 4o, 1802 : night-birds' S. L., 1828, 1829. 6 slope] steep 1798, 4o, 1802, P. R. 12 way] path 1802.

II

When France in wrath her giant-limbs upreared,

And with that oath, which smote air, earth, and sea,
Stamped her strong foot and said she would be free,
Bear witness for me, how I hoped and feared!
With what a joy my lofty gratulation
Unawed I sang, amid a slavish band:
And when to whelm the disenchanted nation,
Like fiends embattled by a wizard's wand,
The Monarchs marched in evil day,
And Britain joined the dire array;

25

30

Though dear her shores and circling ocean,

Though many friendships, many youthful loves

Had swoln the patriot emotion

And flung a magic light o'er all her hills and groves;

35

Yet still my voice, unaltered, sang defeat

To all that braved the tyrant-quelling lance,

And shame too long delayed and vain retreat!
For ne'er, O Liberty! with partial aim

I dimmed thy light or damped thy holy flame;
But blessed the paeans of delivered France,
And hung my head and wept at Britain's name.

40

6

And what,' I said, though Blasphemy's loud scream
With that sweet music of deliverance strove !
Though all the fierce and drunken passions wove
A dance more wild than e'er was maniac's dream!

Ye storms, that round the dawning East assembled,

The Sun was rising, though ye hid his light!'

45

And when, to soothe my soul, that hoped and trembled, The dissonance ceased, and all seemed calm and bright; 50 When France her front deep-scarr'd and gory Concealed with clustering wreaths of glory;

23 smote air, earth, and sea] smote earth, air, and sea 1798, 4o, P. R.: shook earth, air, and sea 1802. eager 1802.

24 foot] feet 1798. 27 sang] sung 1798, 4o, P. R.

26 lofty] 30 marched] mov'd 1802. 34 the] that 1802. 35 flung] spread 1802. 41 But] I 1802.

44 that sweet music] those sweet Peans 1802. 40, P. R.

46 e'er was] ever 1798,

51 deep-scarr'd] deep-scar'd 1798, 4o, P. R., S. L.