The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 153

FOOTNOTES:

[439:1] First published in its present shape in 1834. Lines 1-38, with the heading 'Youth and Age', were first published in the _Literary Souvenir_, 1828, and also in the _Bijou_, 1828: included in 1828, 1829.

Lines 39-49 were first published in _Blackwood's Magazine_ for June 1832, ent.i.tled 'An Old Man's Sigh: a Sonnet', as 'an out-slough or hypertrophic stanza of a certain poem called "Youth and Age".' Of lines 1-43 three MSS. are extant. (1) A fair copy (_MS. 1_) presented to Derwent Coleridge, and now in the Editor's possession. In _MS. 1_ the poem is divided into three stanzas: (i) lines 1-17; (ii) lines 18-38; (iii) lines 39-43. The watermark of this MS. on a quarto sheet of Bath Post letter-paper is 1822. (2) A rough draft, in a notebook dated Sept.

10, 1823; and (3) a corrected draft of forty-three lines (vide for _MSS.

2_, _3_ Appendices of this edition). A MS. version of _An Old Man's Sigh_, dated 'Grove, Highgate, April 1832', was contributed to Miss Rotha Quillinan's Alb.u.m; and another version numbering only eight lines was inscribed in an alb.u.m in 1828 when Coleridge was on his Rhine tour with Wordsworth. After line 42 this version continues:--

As we creep feebly down life's slope, Yet courteous dame, accept this truth, Hope leaves us not, but we leave hope, And quench the inward light of youth.

T. Colley Grattan's _Beaten Paths_, 1862, ii. 139.

There can be little doubt that lines 1-43 were composed in 1823, and that the last six lines of the text which form part of _An Old Man's Sigh_ were composed, as an afterthought, in 1832.

LINENOTES:

[1] Verse, a] Verse is a _with the alternative_ ? Verse a breeze MS. 1.

[2] clung] clings MS. 1, Bijou.

[6] When I] _When_ I 1828, 1829.

[8] This house of clay MS. 1, Bijou.

[10] O'er hill and dale and sounding sands MS. 1, Bijou.

[11] then] _then_ 1828, 1829.

[12] skiffs] boats MS. 1, Bijou.

[20] came] come Bijou.

[21] Of Beauty, Truth, and Liberty MS. 1, Bijou.

[23] Ere I] _Ere_ I 1828, 1829. woful] mournful Literary Souvenir.

[25] many] merry Bijou.

[27] fond] false MS. 1, Bijou.

[32] make believe] _make believe_ 1828, 1829.

[34] drooping] dragging MS. 1, Bijou.

[42-4]

That only serves to make me grieve Now I am old!

Now I am old,--ah woful Now

MS. 1.

[44-5]

In our old age Whose bruised wings quarrel with the bars of the still narrowing cage.

Inserted in 1832.

[49] Two lines were added in 1832:--

O might Life cease! and Selfless Mind, Whose total Being is Act, alone remain behind.

THE REPROOF AND REPLY[441:1]

Or, The Flower-Thief's Apology, for a robbery committed in Mr. and Mrs.

----'s garden, on Sunday morning, 25th of May, 1823, between the hours of eleven and twelve.

"Fie, Mr. Coleridge!--and can this be you?

Break two commandments? and in church-time too!

Have you not heard, or have you heard in vain, The birth-and-parentage-recording strain?-- Confessions shrill, that out-shrill'd mack'rel drown 5 Fresh from the drop--the youth not yet cut down-- Letter to sweet-heart--the last dying speech-- And didn't all this begin in Sabbath-breach?

You, that knew better! In broad open day, Steal in, steal out, and steal our flowers away? 10 What could possess you? Ah! sweet youth. I fear The chap with horns and tail was at your ear!"

Such sounds of late, accusing fancy brought From fair Chisholm to the Poet's thought.

Now hear the meek Parna.s.sian youth's reply:-- 15 A bow--a pleading look--a downcast eye,-- And then:

"Fair dame! a visionary wight, Hard by your hill-side mansion sparkling white, His thoughts all hovering round the Muses' home, Long hath it been your Poet's wont to roam, 20 And many a morn, on his becharmed sense So rich a stream of music issued thence, He deem'd himself, as it flowed warbling on, Beside the vocal fount of Helicon!

But when, as if to settle the concern, 25 A Nymph too he beheld, in many a turn, Guiding the sweet rill from its fontal urn,-- Say, can you blame?--No! none that saw and heard Could blame a bard, that he thus inly stirr'd; A muse beholding in each fervent trait, 30 Took Mary H---- for Polly Hymnia!

Or haply as there stood beside the maid One loftier form in sable stole array'd, If with regretful thought he hail'd in _thee_ Chisholm, his long-lost friend, Mol Pomene! 35 But most of _you_, soft warblings, I complain!

'Twas ye that from the bee-hive of my brain Did lure the fancies forth, a freakish rout, And witch'd the air with dreams turn'd inside out.

"Thus all conspir'd--each power of eye and ear, 40 And this gay month, th' enchantress of the year, To cheat poor me (no conjuror, G.o.d wot!) And Chisholm's self accomplice in the plot.

Can you then wonder if I went astray?

Not bards alone, nor lovers mad as they;-- 45 All Nature _day-dreams_ in the month of May.

And if I pluck'd 'each flower that _sweetest_ blows,'-- Who walks in sleep, needs follow must his _nose_.

"Thus, long accustom'd on the twy-fork'd hill,[442:1]

To pluck both flower and floweret at my will; 50 The garden's maze, like No-man's-land, I tread, Nor common law, nor statute in my head; For my own proper smell, sight, fancy, feeling, With autocratic hand at once repealing Five Acts of Parliament 'gainst private stealing! 55 But yet from Chisholm who despairs of grace?

There's no spring-gun or man-trap in _that_ face!

Let Moses then look black, and Aaron blue, That look as if they had little else to do: For Chisholm speaks, 'Poor youth! he's but a waif! 60 The spoons all right? the hen and chickens safe?

Well, well, he shall not forfeit our regards-- The Eighth Commandment was not made for Bards!'"[443:1]

1823.

FOOTNOTES:

[441:1] First published in _Friendship's Offering_ for 1834, as the first of four 'Lightheartednesses in Rhyme'. A motto was prefixed:--'I expect no sense, worth listening to, from the man who never does talk nonsense,'--_Anon._ In _F. O._, 1834, Chisholm was printed C---- in line 14, C----m in lines 35, 56, and 60, C----m's in line 43. In 1834, 1844 the name was omitted altogether. The text of the present edition follows the MS. First collected in _P. W._, 1834. A MS. version is in the possession of Miss Edith Coleridge. These lines were included in 1844, but omitted from 1852, 1863, and 1870.