Eve, my mother, brought forth, cease to torment me! I was feeding my flocks in green pastures by the side of quiet rivers, and thou killedst me; and now I am in misery.' Then Cain 120 closed his eyes, and hid them with his hands; and again he opened his eyes, and looked around him, and said to Enos, 'What beholdest thou? Didst thou hear a voice, my son?' 'Yes, my father, I beheld a man in unclean garments, and he uttered a sweet voice, full of lamentation.' Then Cain 125 raised up the Shape that was like Abel, and said:-'The Creator of our father, who had respect unto thee, and unto thy offering, wherefore hath he forsaken thee?' Then the Shape shrieked a second time, and rent his garment, and his naked skin was like the white sands beneath their feet; 130 and he shrieked yet third time, and threw himself on his face upon the sand that was black with the shadow of the rock, and Cain and Enos sate beside him; the child by his right hand, and Cain by his left. They were all three under the rock, and within the shadow. The Shape that was like 135 Abel raised himself up, and spake to the child, I know where the cold waters are, but I may not drink, wherefore didst thou then take away my pitcher?' But Cain said, 'Didst thou not find favour in the sight of the Lord thy God?' The Shape answered, 'The Lord is God of the living only, 140 the dead have another God.' Then the child Enos lifted up his eyes and prayed; but Cain rejoiced secretly in his heart. 'Wretched shall they be all the days of their mortal life,' exclaimed the Shape, 'who sacrifice worthy and acceptable sacrifices to the God of the dead; but after death their toil 145 ceaseth. Woe is me, for I was well beloved by the God of - the living, and cruel wert thou, O my brother, who didst snatch me away from his power and his dominion.' Having uttered these words, he rose suddenly, and fled over the sands: and Cain said in his heart, 'The curse of the Lord is on me; 150 but who is the God of the dead?' and he ran after the Shape, and the Shape fled shrieking over the sands, and the sands rose like white mists behind the steps of Cain, but the feet of him that was like Abel disturbed not the sands. He greatly outrun Cain, and turning short, he wheeled round, and came 155 again to the rock where they had been sitting, and where Enos still stood; and the child caught hold of his garment as he passed by, and he fell upon the ground. And Cain stopped, and beholding him not, said, 'he has passed into the dark woods,' and he walked slowly back to the rocks; and when he 160 160 and walked Bijou, 1828. rocks] rock MS. reached it the child told him that he had caught hold of his garment as he passed by, and that the man had fallen upon the ground and Cain once more sate beside him, and said, 'Abel, my brother, I would lament for thee, but that the spirit 165 within me is withered, and burnt up with extreme agony. Now, I pray thee, by thy flocks, and by thy pastures, and by the quiet rivers which thou lovedst, that thou tell me all that thou knowest. Who is the God of the dead? where doth he make his dwelling? what sacrifices are acceptable unto him? for I have offered, but have not been received; I have prayed, and have not been heard; and how can I be afflicted more than I already am?' The Shape arose and answered, 'O that thou hadst had pity on me as I will have pity on thee. Follow me, 170 175 Son of Adam! and bring thy child with thee!' And they three passed over the white sands between the rocks, silent as the shadows. I MIX in life, and labour to seem free, With common persons pleas'd and common things, And every impulse from thy influence springs. ? 1798. First published without title in Literary Remains, 1836, i. 280 (among ⚫ other short pieces and fragments 'communicated by Mr. Gutch'). First collected, again without title, in P. and D. W., 1877-80. Το Title] To 1893. The heading Ubi Thesaurus Ibi Cor was prefixed to the illustrated edition of The Poems of Coleridge, 1907. THE BALLAD OF THE DARK LADIÉ1 A FRAGMENT BENEATH yon birch with silver bark, And there upon the moss she sits, And drops and swells again. Three times she sends her little page If he might find the Knight that wears The sun was sloping down the sky, 5 10 15 First published in 1834. 'In a manuscript list (undated) of the poems drawn up by Coleridge appear these items together: Love 96 lines ... The Black Ladié 190 lines.' Note to P. W., 1893, p. 614. A MS. of the three last stanzas is extant. In Chapter XIV of the Biographia Literaria, 1817, ii. 3 Coleridge synchronizes the Dark Ladié (a poem which he was 'preparing') with the Christabel. It would seem probable that it belongs to the spring or early summer of 1798, and that it was anterior to Love, which was first published in the Morning Post, December 21, 1799, under the heading 'Introduction to the Tale of the Dark Ladié'. If the MS. List of Poems is the record of poems actually written, two-thirds of the Dark Ladié must have perished long before 1817, when Sibylline Leaves was passing through the press, and it was found necessary to swell the Contents with 'two School-boy Poems' and 'with a song modernized with some additions from one of our elder poets'. She hears a rustling o'er the brook, She springs, she clasps him round the neck, Her kisses glowing on his cheeks The Knight made answer to the Maid, While to his heart he held her hand, 'Nine castles hath my noble sire, None statelier in the land. 'The fairest one shall be my love's, The fairest castle of the nine! Wait only till the stars peep out, The fairest shall be thine: Wait only till the hand of eve 'The dark? the dark? No! not the dark? The twinkling stars? How, Henry? How?' He pledged his sacred vow! 20 25 30 35 40 45 And in the eye of noon my love 50 Sweet boys and girls all clothed in white But first the nodding minstrels go 55 1798. And then my love and I shall pace, And blushing bridal maids. KUBLA KHAN1: OR, A VISION IN A DREAM, A FRAGMENT. THE following fragment is here published at the request of a poet of great and deserved celebrity [Lord Byron], and, as far as the Author's own opinions are concerned, rather as a psychological curiosity, than on the ground of any supposed poetic merits. In the summer of the year 17972, the Author, then in ill 1 First published together with Christabel and The Pains of Sleep, 1816: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834. 2 There can be little doubt that Coleridge should have written the summer of 1798'. In an unpublished MS. note dated November 3, 1810, he connects the retirement between Linton and Porlock' and a recourse to opium with his quarrel with Charles Lloyd, and consequent distress of mind. That quarrel was at its height in May 1798. He alludes to distress of mind arising from 'calumny and ingratitude from men who have been fostered in the bosom of my confidence' in a letter to J. P. Estlin, dated May 14, 1798; and, in a letter to Charles Lamb, dated [Spring] 1798, he enlarges on his quarrel with Lloyd and quotes from Lloyd's novel of Edmund Oliver which was published in 1798. See Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1895, i. 245, note 1. I discovered and read for the first time the unpublished note of November 3, 1810, whilst the edition of 1893 was in the press, and in a footnote to p. xlii of his Introduction the editor, J. D. Campbell, explains that it is too late to alter the position and date of Kubla Khan, but accepts the later date (May, 1798) on the evidence of the MS. note. 53-6 57 pace] go MS. Kubla Khan, &c. 1816, 1828, 1829. 1-5 om. 1834. And first the nodding Minstrels go With music fit for lovely Bowers, The children then in snowy robes, Strewing Buds and Flowers. MS. S. T. C. Title of Introduction :-Of the Fragment of Kubla Khan 5 |