The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 116

Splendour's fondly-fostered child!

And did you hail the platform wild, Where once the Austrian fell Beneath the shaft of Tell!

O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure! 5 Whence learn'd you that heroic measure?

Light as a dream your days their circlets ran, From all that teaches brotherhood to Man Far, far removed! from want, from hope, from fear!

Enchanting music lulled your infant ear, 10 Obeisance, praises soothed your infant heart: Emblazonments and old ancestral crests, With many a bright obtrusive form of art, Detained your eye from Nature: stately vests, That veiling strove to deck your charms divine, 15 Rich viands, and the pleasurable wine, Were yours unearned by toil; nor could you see The unenjoying toiler's misery.

And yet, free Nature's uncorrupted child, You hailed the Chapel and the Platform wild, 20 Where once the Austrian fell Beneath the shaft of Tell!

O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure!

Whence learn'd you that heroic measure?

There crowd your finely-fibred frame 25 All living faculties of bliss; And Genius to your cradle came, His forehead wreathed with lambent flame, And bending low, with G.o.dlike kiss Breath'd in a more celestial life; 30 But boasts not many a fair compeer A heart as sensitive to joy and fear?

And some, perchance, might wage an equal strife, Some few, to n.o.bler being wrought, Corrivals in the n.o.bler gift of thought. 35 Yet these delight to celebrate Laurelled War and plumy State; Or in verse and music dress Tales of rustic happiness-- Pernicious tales! insidious strains! 40 That steel the rich man's breast, And mock the lot unblest, The sordid vices and the abject pains, Which evermore must be The doom of ignorance and penury! 45 But you, free Nature's uncorrupted child, You hailed the Chapel and the Platform wild, Where once the Austrian fell Beneath the shaft of Tell!

O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure! 50 Whence learn'd you that heroic measure?

You were a Mother! That most holy name, Which Heaven and Nature bless, I may not vilely prost.i.tute to those Whose infants owe them less 55 Than the poor caterpillar owes Its gaudy parent fly.

You were a mother! at your bosom fed The babes that loved you. You, with laughing eye, Each twilight-thought, each nascent feeling read, 60 Which you yourself created. Oh! delight!

A second time to be a mother, Without the mother's bitter groans: Another thought, and yet another, By touch, or taste, by looks or tones, 65 O'er the growing sense to roll, The mother of your infant's soul!

The Angel of the Earth, who, while he guides[337:1]

His chariot-planet round the goal of day, All trembling gazes on the eye of G.o.d 70 A moment turned his awful face away; And as he viewed you, from his aspect sweet New influences in your being rose, Blest intuitions and communions fleet With living Nature, in her joys and woes! 75 Thenceforth your soul rejoiced to see The shrine of social Liberty!

O beautiful! O Nature's child!

'Twas thence you hailed the Platform wild, Where once the Austrian fell 80 Beneath the shaft of Tell!

O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure!

Thence learn'd you that heroic measure.

1799.

FOOTNOTES:

[335:1] First published in the _Morning Post_, December 24, 1799 (in four numbered stanzas): included in the _Annual Anthology_, 1800, in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817, 1828, 1829, and 1834. The d.u.c.h.ess's poem ent.i.tled 'Pa.s.sage over Mount Gothard' was published in the _Morning Chronicle_ on Dec. 20 and in the _Morning Post_, Dec. 21, 1799.

[337:1] In a copy of the _Annual Anthology_ Coleridge drew his pen through ll. 68-77, but the lines appeared in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817, and in all later editions (see _P. W._, 1898, p. 624).

LINENOTES:

_Ode to Georgiana_, &c.--Motto 4

Then wing'd the arrow to

M. P., An. Anth.

Sub-t.i.tle] On the 24{th} stanza in her Poem, ent.i.tled 'The Pa.s.sage of the Mountain of St. Gothard.' M. P.

[1-2]

Lady, Splendor's foster'd child And did _you_

M. P.

[2] you] _you_ An. Anth.

[7] your years their courses M. P.

[9] Ah! far remov'd from want and hope and fear M. P.

[11] Obeisant praises M. P.

[14] stately] gorgeous M. P.

[15] om. An. Anth.

[31 foll.]

But many of your many fair compeers [But many of thy many fair compeers M. P.]

Have frames as sensible of joys and fears; And some might wage an equal strife

An. Anth.

[34-5]

(Some few perchance to n.o.bler being wrought), Corrivals in the plastic powers of thought.

M. P.

[35] Corrivals] co-rivals An. Anth., S. L. 1828.

[36] these] _these_ S. L. 1828, 1829.

[40] insidious] insulting M. P.

[45] penury] poverty M. P., An. Anth.

[47] Hail'd the low Chapel M. P., An. Anth.

[51] Whence] Where An. Anth., S. L. 1828, 1829.

[56] caterpillar] Reptile M. P., An. Anth.

[60] each] and M. P.

[72] you] thee M. P.

[73] your] thy M. P.

[76] O Lady thence ye joy'd to see M. P.