The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 105

THE OVIDIAN ELEGIAC METRE

DESCRIBED AND EXEMPLIFIED

In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column; In the pentameter aye falling in melody back.

? 1799.

ON A CATARACT[308:1]

FROM A CAVERN NEAR THE SUMMIT OF A MOUNTAIN PRECIPICE

STROPHE

Unperishing youth!

Thou leapest from forth The cell of thy hidden nativity; Never mortal saw The cradle of the strong one; 5 Never mortal heard The gathering of his voices; The deep-murmured charm of the son of the rock, That is lisp'd evermore at his slumberless fountain.

There's a cloud at the portal, a spray-woven veil 10 At the shrine of his ceaseless renewing; It embosoms the roses of dawn, It entangles the shafts of the noon, And into the bed of its stillness The moonshine sinks down as in slumber, 15 That the son of the rock, that the nursling of heaven May be born in a holy twilight!

ANTISTROPHE

The wild goat in awe Looks up and beholds Above thee the cliff inaccessible;-- 20 Thou at once full-born Madd'nest in thy joyance, Whirlest, shatter'st, splitt'st, Life invulnerable.

? 1799.

FOOTNOTES:

[308:1] First published in 1834. For the original (_Unsterblicher Jungling_) by Count F. L. s...o...b..rg see Note to _Poems_, 1844, pp. 371-2, and Appendices of this edition.

LINENOTES:

t.i.tle] Improved from s...o...b..rg. On a Cataract, &c. 1844, 1852.

[2-3]

Thou streamest from forth The cleft of thy ceaseless Nativity

MS. S. T. C.

[Between 7 and 13.]

The murmuring songs of the Son of the Rock, When he feeds evermore at the slumberless Fountain.

There abideth a Cloud, At the Portal a Veil, At the shrine of thy self-renewing; It embodies the Visions of Dawn, It entangles, &c.

MS. S. T. C.

[20] Below thee the cliff inaccessible MS. S. T. C.

[22-3]

Flockest in thy Joyance, Wheelest, shatter'st, start'st.

MS. S. T. C.

TELL'S BIRTH-PLACE[309:1]

IMITATED FROM s...o...b..RG

I

Mark this holy chapel well!

The birth-place, this, of William Tell.

Here, where stands G.o.d's altar dread, Stood his parents' marriage-bed.

II

Here, first, an infant to her breast, 5 Him his loving mother prest; And kissed the babe, and blessed the day, And prayed as mothers use to pray.

III

'Vouchsafe him health, O G.o.d! and give The child thy servant still to live!' 10 But G.o.d had destined to do more Through him, than through an armed power.

IV

G.o.d gave him reverence of laws, Yet stirring blood in Freedom's cause-- A spirit to his rocks akin, 15 The eye of the hawk, and the fire therein!

V

To Nature and to Holy Writ Alone did G.o.d the boy commit: Where flashed and roared the torrent, oft His soul found wings, and soared aloft! 20

VI

The straining oar and chamois chase Had formed his limbs to strength and grace: On wave and wind the boy would toss, Was great, nor knew how great he was!

VII

He knew not that his chosen hand, 25 Made strong by G.o.d, his native land Would rescue from the shameful yoke Of Slavery----the which he broke!