O all-enjoying and all-blending sage,

Long be it mine to con thy mazy page,

Where, half conceal'd, the eye of fancy views

Fauns, nymphs, and wingéd saints, all gracious to thy muse!

Still in thy garden let me watch their pranks,

And see in Dian's vest between the ranks

Of the trim vines, some maid that half believes
The vestal fires, of which her lover grieves,
With that sly satyr peeping through the leaves !

1828.

105

LOVE, HOPE, AND PATIENCE IN EDUCATION1

O'ER wayward childhood would'st thou hold firm rule,
And sun thee in the light of happy faces;
Love, Hope, and Patience, these must be thy graces,
And in thine own heart let them first keep school.
For as old Atlas on his broad neck places
Heaven's starry globe, and there sustains it ;-so
Do these upbear the little world below

Of Education,-Patience, Love, and Hope.

5

1 First published in The Keepsake for 1830: included in P. W., 1834, iii. 331. An MS. version was forwarded to W. Sotheby in an unpublished letter of July 12, 1829. A second MS., dated July 1, 1829, is inscribed in an album now in the Editor's possession, which belonged to Miss Emily Trevenen (the author of Little Derwent's Breakfast, 1839). With regard to the variant of 11. 24-6, vide infra, Coleridge writes (Letter of July 12, 1829):-"They were struck out by the author, not because he thought them bad lines in themselves (quamvis Della Cruscam fortasse nimis redolere videantur), but because they diverted and retarded the stream of the thought, and injured the organic unity of the composition. Più nel uno is Francesco de Sallez' brief and happy definition of the beautiful, and the shorter the poem the more indispensable is it that the Più should not overlay the Uno, that the unity should be evident. But to sacrifice the gratification, the sting of pleasure, from a fine passage to the satisfaction, the sense of complacency arising from the contemplation of a symmetrical Whole is among the last conquests achieved by men of genial powers.'

108 vestal] restal Keepsake, 1829.

Title] Lines in a Lady's Album in answer to her question respecting the accomplishments most desirable in the Mistress or Governess of a Preparatory School Letter, July 1829: The Poet's Answer, To a Lady's Question respecting the accomplishments most desirable in an instructress of Children Keepsake, 1830.

2 And] Yet Letter, 1829. keep school Keepsake.

COLERIDGE

3 thy] thy Keepsake.

R

4 keep school]

Methinks, I see them group'd in seemly show,
The straiten'd arms upraised, the palms aslope,
And robes that touching as adown they flow,
Distinctly blend, like snow emboss'd in snow.
O part them never! If Hope prostrate lie,
Love too will sink and die.
But Love is subtle, and doth proof derive
From her own life that Hope is yet alive;
And bending o'er, with soul-transfusing eyes,
And the soft murmurs of the mother dove,
Woos back the fleeting spirit, and half supplies;-

10

15

Thus Love repays to Hope what Hope first gave to Love.

Yet haply there will come a weary day,

When overtask'd at length

Both Love and Hope beneath the load give way.
Then with a statue's smile, a statue's strength,
Stands the mute sister, Patience, nothing loth,
And both supporting does the work of both.

1829.

21

25

TO MISS A. T.1

VERSE, pictures, music, thoughts both grave and gay,
Remembrances of dear-loved friends away,

On spotless page of virgin white displayed,

Such should thine Album be, for such art thou, sweet maid!

1829.

First published in Essays on His Own Times, 1850, iii. 998 with the title 'To Miss A. T. First collected in 1893, with the title 'In Miss E. Trevenen's Album'. 'Miss A. T.' may have been a misprint for Miss E. T., but there is no MS. authority for the title prefixed in 1893.

9-11

Methinks I see them now, the triune group,
With straiten'd arms uprais'd, the Palms aslope
Robe touching Robe beneath, and blending as they flow.

15 doth] will Keepsake, 1833. 24-6

Letter, July 1829.

Then like a Statue with a Statue's strength,
And with a Smile, the Sister Fay of those

Who at meek Evening's Close

To teach our Grief repose,

Their freshly-gathered store of Moonbeams wreath
On Marble Lips, a Chantrey has made breathe.

Letter, July 1829.

LINES1

WRITTEN IN COMMONPLACE BOOK OF MISS BARBOUR, DAUGHTER

OF THE MINISTER OF THE U.S.A. TO ENGLAND

CHILD of my muse! in Barbour's gentle hand
Go cross the main: thou seek'st no foreign land:
'Tis not the clod beneath our feet we name

Our country. Each heaven-sanctioned tie the same,
Laws, manners, language, faith, ancestral blood,
Domestic honour, awe of womanhood:-
:-
With kindling pride thou wilt rejoice to see
Britain with elbow-room and doubly free!
Go seek thy countrymen! and if one scar
Still linger of that fratricidal war,

Look to the maid who brings thee from afar
Be thou the olive-leaf and she the dove,
And say, I greet thee with a brother's love!

GROVE, HIGHGATE, August 1829.

;

S. T. COLERIDGE.

5

10

SONG, ex improviso 2

ON HEARING A SONG IN PRAISE OF A LADY'S BEAUTY

"Tis not the lily-brow I prize,
Nor roseate cheeks, nor sunny eyes,
Enough of lilies and of roses!

A thousand-fold more dear to me
The gentle look that Love discloses,-
The look that Love alone can see!
Keepsake, 1830.

5

1 First published in the New York Mirror for Dec. 19, 1829: reprinted in The Athenaeum, May 3, 1884: first collected in 1893.

2 First published in The Keepsake for 1830: included in Essays on His Own Times, 1850, iii. 997. First collected in P. and D. W., 1877-89.

daughter of the late

Lines Written, &c.-Title] Lines written
Minister to England. Athenaeum 1884.
Song, &c.—Title] To a Lady Essays, &c. 1850.
5-6 The look that gentle Love discloses,—
That look which Love alone can see.

Essays, &c. 1850,

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP OPPOSITE1

HER attachment may differ from yours in degree,
Provided they are both of one kind;

But Friendship, how tender so ever it be,
Gives no accord to Love, however refined.

Love, that meets not with Love, its true nature revealing, 5
Grows ashamed of itself, and demurs:

If you cannot lift hers up to your state of feeling,
You must lower down your state to hers.

A LOVELY form there sate beside my bed,
And such a feeding calm its presence shed,

1 First published as No. ii of 'Lightheartednesses in Rhyme' in Friendship's Offering for 1834: included in P. W., 1834.

2 First published in 1834.

First published in 1834.

Love, &c.-Title] In Answer To A Friend's Question F. 0.

in degree] in degree F. O.

2 kind] kind F. 0,

A tender love so pure from earthly leaven,
That I unnethe the fancy might control,
'Twas my own spirit newly come from heaven,
Wooing its gentle way into my soul!

But ah! the change-It had not stirr'd, and yet-
Alas! that change how fain would I forget!
That shrinking back, like one that had mistook!
That weary, wandering, disavowing look!
"Twas all another, feature, look, and frame,
And still, methought, I knew, it was the same!

5

10

FRIEND

This riddling tale, to what does it belong?
Is't history? vision? or an idle song?

Or rather say at once, within what space

15

Of time this wild disastrous change took place?

AUTHOR

Call it a moment's work (and such it seems)
This tale's a fragment from the life of dreams;
But say, that years matur'd the silent strife,
And 'tis a record from the dream of life.
? 1830.

DESIRE 1

WHERE true Love burns Desire is Love's pure flame;
It is the reflex of our earthly frame,

That takes its meaning from the nobler part,
And but translates the language of the heart.

? 1830.

1 First published in 1834.

1-4

Desire of pure Love born, itself the same;
A pulse that animates the outer frame,
And takes the impress of the nobler part,
It but repeats the Life, that of the Heart.

MS. S. T. C.

20