Monody On The Death Of Chatterton Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS *** Transcriber's Notes: Words surrounded by _underscores_ are in italics in the original. Characters superscripted in the original are enclosed in {braces}. In this text, the following symbols are used: ¯ indicates a macron ˘ indicates a breve Some words and phrases have a line drawn through them in the original. These struck out words are enclosed in brackets with asterisks like this: [*these words are struck through*] Characters printed in a Gothic font are enclosed in brackets with equal signs like this: [=these words are in a Gothic font=] Other Transcriber's Notes follow the text. THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE INCLUDING POEMS AND VERSIONS OF POEMS NOW PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME EDITED WITH TEXTUAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES BY ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE M.A., HON. F.R.S.L. IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I: POEMS OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1912 MONODY ON THE DEATH OF CHATTERTON[125:1] O what a wonder seems the fear of death, Seeing how gladly we all sink to sleep, Babes, Children, Youths, and Men, Night following night for threescore years and ten! But doubly strange, where life is but a breath 5 To sigh and pant with, up Want's rugged steep. Away, Grim Phantom! Scorpion King, away! Reserve thy terrors and thy stings display For coward Wealth and Guilt in robes of State! Lo! by the grave I stand of one, for whom 10 A prodigal Nature and a niggard Doom (_That_ all bestowing, _this_ withholding all) Made each chance knell from distant spire or dome Sound like a seeking Mother's anxious call, Return, poor Child! Home, weary Truant, home! 15 Thee, Chatterton! these unblest stones protect From want, and the bleak freezings of neglect. Too long before the vexing Storm-blast driven Here hast thou found repose! beneath this sod! Thou! O vain word! _thou_ dwell'st not with the clod! 20 Amid the shining Host of the Forgiven Thou at the throne of mercy and thy God The triumph of redeeming Love dost hymn (Believe it, O my Soul!) to harps of Seraphim. Yet oft, perforce ('tis suffering Nature's call), 25 I weep that heaven-born Genius _so_ should fall; And oft, in Fancy's saddest hour, my soul Averted shudders at the poison'd bowl. Now groans my sickening heart, as still I view Thy corse of livid hue; 30 Now Indignation checks the feeble sigh, Or flashes through the tear that glistens in mine eye! Is this the land of song-ennobled line? Is this the land, where Genius ne'er in vain Pour'd forth his lofty strain? 35 Ah me! yet Spenser, gentlest bard divine, Beneath chill Disappointment's shade, His weary limbs in lonely anguish lay'd. And o'er her darling dead Pity hopeless hung her head, 40 While 'mid the pelting of that merciless storm,' Sunk to the cold earth Otway's famish'd form! Sublime of thought, and confident of fame, From vales where Avon[127:1] winds the Minstrel came. Light-hearted youth! aye, as he hastes along, 45 He meditates the future song, How dauntless Ælla fray'd the Dacyan foe; And while the numbers flowing strong In eddies whirl, in surges throng, Exulting in the spirits' genial throe 50 In tides of power his life-blood seems to flow. And now his cheeks with deeper ardors flame, His eyes have glorious meanings, that declare More than the light of outward day shines there, A holier triumph and a sterner aim! 55 Wings grow within him; and he soars above Or Bard's or Minstrel's lay of war or love. Friend to the friendless, to the sufferer health, He hears the widow's prayer, the good man's praise; To scenes of bliss transmutes his fancied wealth, 60 And young and old shall now see happy days. On many a waste he bids trim gardens rise, Gives the blue sky to many a prisoner's eyes; And now in wrath he grasps the patriot steel, And her own iron rod he makes Oppression feel. 65 Sweet Flower of Hope! free Nature's genial child! That didst so fair disclose thy early bloom, Filling the wide air with a rich perfume! For thee in vain all heavenly aspects smil'd; From the hard world brief respite could they win-- 70 The frost nipp'd sharp without, the canker prey'd within! Ah! where are fled the charms of vernal Grace, And Joy's wild gleams that lighten'd o'er thy face? Youth of tumultuous soul, and haggard eye! Thy wasted form, thy hurried steps I view, 75 On thy wan forehead starts the lethal dew, And oh! the anguish of that shuddering sigh! Such were the struggles of the gloomy hour, When Care, of wither'd brow, Prepar'd the poison's death-cold power: 80 Already to thy lips was rais'd the bowl, When near thee stood Affection meek (Her bosom bare, and wildly pale her cheek) Thy sullen gaze she bade thee roll On scenes that well might melt thy soul; 85 Thy native cot she flash'd upon thy view, Thy native cot, where still, at close of day, Peace smiling sate, and listen'd to thy lay; Thy Sister's shrieks she bade thee hear, And mark thy Mother's thrilling tear; 90 See, see her breast's convulsive throe, Her silent agony of woe! Ah! dash the poison'd chalice from thy hand! And thou hadst dashed it, at her soft command, But that Despair and Indignation rose, 95 And told again the story of thy woes; Told the keen insult of the unfeeling heart, The dread dependence on the low-born mind; Told every pang, with which thy soul must smart, Neglect, and grinning Scorn, and Want combined! 100 Recoiling quick, thou badest the friend of pain Roll the black tide of Death through every freezing vein! O spirit blest! Whether the Eternal's throne around, Amidst the blaze of Seraphim, 105 Thou pourest forth the grateful hymn, Or soaring thro' the blest domain Enrapturest Angels with thy strain,-- Grant me, like thee, the lyre to sound, Like thee with fire divine to glow;-- 110 But ah! when rage the waves of woe, Grant me with firmer breast to meet their hate, And soar beyond the storm with upright eye elate! Ye woods! that wave o'er Avon's rocky steep, To Fancy's ear sweet is your murmuring deep! 115 For here she loves the cypress wreath to weave; Watching with wistful eye, the saddening tints of eve. Here, far from men, amid this pathless grove, In solemn thought the Minstrel wont to rove, Like star-beam on the slow sequester'd tide 120 Lone-glittering, through the high tree branching wide. And here, in Inspiration's eager hour, When most the big soul feels the mastering power, These wilds, these caverns roaming o'er, Round which the screaming sea-gulls soar, 125 With wild unequal steps he pass'd along, Oft pouring on the winds a broken song: Anon, upon some rough rock's fearful brow Would pause abrupt--and gaze upon the waves below. Poor Chatterton! _he_ sorrows for thy fate 130 Who would have prais'd and lov'd thee, ere too late. Poor Chatterton! farewell! of darkest hues This chaplet cast I on thy unshaped tomb; But dare no longer on the sad theme muse, Lest kindred woes persuade a kindred doom: 135 For oh! big gall-drops, shook from Folly's wing, Have blacken'd the fair promise of my spring; And the stern Fate transpierc'd with viewless dart The last pale Hope that shiver'd at my heart! Hence, gloomy thoughts! no more my soul shall dwell 140 On joys that were! no more endure to weigh The shame and anguish of the evil day, Wisely forgetful! O'er the ocean swell Sublime of Hope I seek the cottag'd dell Where Virtue calm with careless step may stray; 145 And, dancing to the moon-light roundelay, The wizard Passions weave an holy spell! O Chatterton! that thou wert yet alive! Sure thou would'st spread the canvass to the gale, And love with us the tinkling team to drive 150 O'er peaceful Freedom's undivided dale; And we, at sober eve, would round thee throng, Would hang, enraptur'd, on thy stately song, And greet with smiles the young-eyed Poesy All deftly mask'd as hoar Antiquity. 155 Alas, vain Phantasies! the fleeting brood Of Woe self-solac'd in her dreamy mood! Yet will I love to follow the sweet dream, Where Susquehannah pours his untamed stream; And on some hill, whose forest-frowning side 160 Waves o'er the murmurs of his calmer tide, Will raise a solemn Cenotaph to thee, Sweet Harper of time-shrouded Minstrelsy! And there, sooth'd sadly by the dirgeful wind, Muse on the sore ills I had left behind. 165 1790-1834. FOOTNOTES: [125:1] The 'Monody', &c., dated in eds. 1796, 1797, 1803, 'October, 1794,' was first published at Cambridge in 1794, in _Poems_, By Thomas Rowley [i. e. Chatterton] and others edited by Lancelot Sharpe (pp. xxv-xxviii). An _Introductory Note_ was prefixed:--'The Editor thinks himself happy in the permission of an ingenious friend to insert the following Monody.' The variants marked 1794 are derived from that work. The 'Monody' was not included in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817. For MS. variants _vide ante_, 'Monody', &c., Christ's Hospital Version. Coleridge told Cottle, May 27, 1814 that lines 1-4 were written when he was 'a mere boy' (_Reminiscences_, 1847, p. 348); and, again, April 22, 1819, he told William Worship that they were written 'in his thirteenth year as a school exercise'. The Monody numbered 107 lines in 1794, 143 in 1796, 135 in 1797, 119 in 1803, 143 in 1828, 154 in 1829, and 165 lines in 1834. [127:1] Avon, a river near Bristol, the birth-place of Chatterton. LINENOTES: [1-15] When faint and sad o'er Sorrow's desart wild Slow journeys onward, poor Misfortune's child; When fades each lovely form by Fancy drest, And inly pines the self-consuming breast; (No scourge of scorpions in thy right arm dread, No helméd terrors nodding o'er thy head,) Assume, O DEATH! the cherub wings of PEACE, And bid the heartsick Wanderer's Anguish cease. 1794, 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828. [Lines 1-15 of the text were first printed in 1829.] [16] these] yon 1794, 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828. [18-24] Escap'd the sore wounds of Affliction's rod Meek at the throne of Mercy and of God, Perchance, thou raisest high th' enraptur'd hymn Amid the blaze of Seraphim! 1794, 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828. [25] Yet oft ('tis Nature's bosom-startling call) 1794, 1796, 1828: Yet oft ('tis Nature's call) 1797, 1803. [26] should] shall 1829. [30] Thy] The 1794. [31-32] And now a flash of Indignation high Darts through the tear that glistens in mine eye. 1794, 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828. [35] his] her 1794. [37] Disappointment's deadly shade 1794. [41] merciless] pitiless 1794. [45] aye, as] om. 1797, 1803. [46] He] And 1797, 1803. [47-56] How dauntless Ælla fray'd the Dacyan foes; And, as floating high in air, Glitter the sunny Visions fair, His eyes dance rapture, and his bosom glows! 1794, 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828. [1794 reads 'Danish foes'; 1797, 1803 read 'See, as floating', &c. Lines 48-56 were added in 1829.] [58-71] Friend to the friendless, to the sick man Health, With generous Joy he views th' _ideal_ wealth; He hears the Widow's heaven-breath'd prayer of Praise; He marks the shelter'd Orphan's tearful gaze; Or where the sorrow-shrivell'd Captive lay, 5 Pours the bright Blaze of Freedom's noon-tide Ray: And now, indignant 'grasps the patriot steel' And her own iron rod he makes Oppression feel. Clad in Nature's rich array, And bright in all her tender hues, 10 Sweet Tree of Hope! thou loveliest child of Spring! How fair didst thou disclose thine early bloom, Loading the west winds with its soft perfume! And Fancy, elfin form of gorgeous wing, [And Fancy hovering round on shadowy wing, 1794.] On every blossom hung her fostering dews, 15 That, changeful, wanton'd to the orient Day! But soon upon thy poor unshelter'd Head [Ah! soon, &c. 1794.] Did Penury her sickly mildew shed: And soon the scathing Lightning bade thee stand In frowning horror o'er the blighted Land 1794, 1796, 1828. [Lines 1-8 of the preceding variant were omitted in 1797. Line 9 reads 'Yes! Clad,' &c., and line 12 reads 'Most fair,' &c. The entire variant, 'Friend . . . Land,' was omitted in 1803, but reappears in 1828. The quotation marks 'grasps the patriot steel' which appear in 1796, but not in 1794, were inserted in 1828, but omitted in 1829, 1834. Lines 1-6 were included in 'Lines written at the King's Arms, Ross', as first published in the Cambridge Intelligencer, Sept. 27, 1794, and in the editions of 1797, 1828, 1829, and 1834.] [72] Ah! where] Whither 1794, 1797. [73] that lighten'd] light-flashing 1797, 1803. [76] wan] cold 1794, 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828. lethal] anguish'd 1794, 1796, 1797, 1828. [77] And dreadful was that bosom-rending sigh 1794, 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828. [78] the gloomy] that gloomy 1803. [80] Prepar'd the poison's power 1797, 1803. [90] And mark thy mother's tear 1797, 1803. [98] low-born] low-bred 1794. [99] with] at 1794. must] might 1794. [102] black] dark 1794. [103-13] These lines, which form the conclusion (ll. 80-90) of the Christ's Hospital Version, were printed for the first time in 1834, with the following variants: l. 104 the Eternal's] th' Eternal; l. 105 Seraphim] Cherubim; l. 112 to meet] t'oppose; l. 113 storm] storms. [120] slow] rude 1794. [121] Lone glittering thro' the Forest's murksome pride 1794. [123] mastering] mad'ning 1794, 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828. [129] Here the Monody ends 1794. [130-65] First printed in 1796. [133] unshaped] shapeless 1803. [136-39] om. 1803. [147] an] a 1834. [153] Would hang] Hanging 1796, 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829.