The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 78

[529] looked] look L. B. 1798, 1800, S. L.

[533] Brown] The L. B. 1798, 1800, S. L. [for _The_ read _Brown_.

_Errata_, S. L. 1817, p. (xi)].

[543] nor . . . nor] ne . . . ne L. B. 1798.

[577] What manner man L. B. 1798, 1800.

[582-5]

Since then at an uncertain hour, Now ofttimes and now fewer, That anguish comes and makes me tell My ghastly aventure.

L. B. 1798.

[583] agony] agency [_a misprint_] L. B. 1800.

[588] That] The L. B. 1798, 1800.

[610] Farewell, farewell] _The comma to be omitted._ _Errata_, L. B.

1798.

[618] The Marinere L. B. 1798.

SONNETS ATTEMPTED IN THE MANNER OF CONTEMPORARY WRITERS[209:1]

[SIGNED 'NEHEMIAH HIGGINBOTTOM']

I

Pensive at eve on the _hard_ world I mus'd, And _my poor_ heart was sad: so at the Moon I gaz'd--and sigh'd, and sigh'd!--for, ah! how soon Eve darkens into night. Mine eye perus'd With tearful vacancy the _dampy_ gra.s.s 5 Which wept and glitter'd in the _paly_ ray; And _I did pause me_ on my lonely way, And _mused me_ on those _wretched ones_ who pa.s.s _O'er the black heath_ of Sorrow. But, alas!

Most of _Myself_ I thought: when it befell 10 That the _sooth_ Spirit of the breezy wood Breath'd in mine ear--'All this is very well; But much of _one_ thing is for _no_ thing good.'

Ah! my _poor heart's_ INEXPLICABLE SWELL!

II

TO SIMPLICITY

O! I do love thee, meek _Simplicity_!

For of thy lays the lulling simpleness Goes to my heart and soothes each small distress, Distress though small, yet haply great to me!

'Tis true on Lady Fortune's gentlest pad 5 I amble on; yet, though I know not why, _So_ sad I am!--but should a friend and I Grow cool and _miff_, O! I am _very_ sad!

And then with sonnets and with sympathy My dreamy bosom's mystic woes I pall; 10 Now of my false friend plaining plaintively, Now raving at mankind in general; But, whether sad or fierce, 'tis simple all, All very simple, meek Simplicity!

III

ON A RUINED HOUSE IN A ROMANTIC COUNTRY

And this reft house is that the which he built, Lamented Jack! And here his malt he pil'd, Cautious in vain! These rats that squeak so wild, Squeak, not unconscious of their father's guilt.

Did ye not see her gleaming thro' the glade?

Belike, 'twas she, the maiden all forlorn.

What though she milk no cow with crumpled horn, Yet _aye_ she haunts the dale where _erst_ she stray'd; And _aye_ beside her stalks her amorous knight!

Still on his thighs their wonted brogues are worn, 10 And thro' those brogues, still tatter'd and betorn, His hindward charms gleam an unearthly white; As when thro' broken clouds at night's high noon Peeps in fair fragments forth the full-orb'd harvest-moon!

1797.

FOOTNOTES:

[209:1] First published in the _Monthly Magazine_ for November, 1797.

They were reprinted in the _Poetical Register_ for 1803 (1805); by Coleridge in the _Biographia Literaria_, 1817, i. 26-8[A]; and by Cottle in _Early Recollections_, i. 290-2; and in _Reminiscences_, p. 160. They were first collected in _P. and D. W._, 1877-80, i. 211-13.

[A] 'Under the name of Nehemiah Higginbottom I contributed three sonnets, the first of which had for its object to excite a good-natured laugh at the spirit of doleful egotism and at the recurrence of favourite phrases, with the double defect of being at once trite and licentious. The second was on low creeping language and thoughts under the pretence of _simplicity_. The third, the phrases of which were borrowed entirely from my own poems, on the indiscriminate use of elaborate and swelling language and imagery. . . . So general at the time and so decided was the opinion concerning the characteristic vices of my style that a celebrated physician (now alas! no more) speaking of me in other respects with his usual kindness to a gentleman who was about to meet me at a dinner-party could not, however, resist giving him a hint not to mention _The House that Jack Built_ in my presence, for that I was as sore as a boil about that sonnet, he not knowing that I was myself the author of it.'

Coleridge's first account of these sonnets in a letter to Cottle [November, 1797] is much to the same effect:--'I sent to the _Monthly Magazine_ (1797) three mock Sonnets in ridicule of my own Poems, and Charles Lloyd's and Lamb's, etc., etc., exposing that affectation of unaffectedness, of jumping and misplaced accent in common-place epithets, flat lines forced into poetry by italics (signifying how well and mouthishly the author would read them), puny pathos, etc., etc. The instances were almost all taken from myself and Lloyd and Lamb. I signed them "Nehemiah Higginbottom". I think they may do good to our young Bards.' [_E. R._, i. 289; _Rem._ 160.]

LINENOTES:

t.i.tle] Sonnet I M. M.

[4] darkens] saddens B. L., i. 27.

[6] Which] That B. L., i. 27.

[8] those] the B. L., i. 27. who] that B. L., i. 27.

[9] black] bleak B. L., i. 27.

[14] Ah!] Oh! B. L., i. 27.

II] Sonnet II. To Simplicity M. M.: no t.i.tle in B. L.

[6] yet, though] and yet B. L., i. 27.

[8] Frown, pout and part then I am _very_ sad B. L., i. 27.

[12] in gener-al Cottle, E. R., i. 288.

III] Sonnet III. To, &c. M. M.

[10] their] his Cottle, E. R., i. 292.

[13] As when] Ah! thus B. L., i. 27.