But it will not be long Ere this be thrown aside, And with new joy and pride The little Actor cons another part; Filling from time to time his "humourous stage" That Life brings with her in her equipage; Were endless imitation. Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep On whom those truths do rest, Which we are toiling all our lives to find, Broods like the Day, a Master o'er a Slave, O joy! that in our embers The thought of our past years in me doth breed For that which is most worthy to be blest- Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest, With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:- The song of thanks and praise; High instincts before which our mortal Nature Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may, Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Can utterly abolish or destroy! Hence in a season of calm weather Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea Can in a moment travel thither, And see the Children sport upon the shore, Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song! As to the tabor's sound! We in thought will join your throng, Ye that pipe and ye that play, Ye that through your hearts to-day Feel the gladness of the May! What though the radiance which was once so bright Be now forever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; Which having been must ever be; In the faith that looks through death, And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves, I only have relinquished one delight To live beneath your more habitual sway. I love the Brooks which down their channels fret, Even more than when I tripped lightly as they; The innocent brightness of a new-born Day Is lovely yet; The Clouds that gather round the setting sun That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality; Another race hath been, and other palms are won. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE [1772-1834] KUBLA KHAN IN Xanadu did Kubla Khan Through caverns measureless to man So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills, But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, The shadow of the dome of pleasure It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! 66 His flashing eyes, his floating hair! And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise." THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER ARGUMENT 1 How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country toward the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country. An ancient mariner meeteth three gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one. PART I IT is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. "By thy long gray beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me? The 1 The Argument was prefixed to the first Edition of "The Ancient Mariner," 1798. The syllabus was added in 1829, when Coleridge considerably revised the poem. text given is that of the edition of 1829. |