Yet neither scorn nor hate did it devise,
But sad compassion and atoning zeal !
One pang more blighting-keen than hope be-
tray'd!

And this it is my woful hap to feel,

When, at her Brother's hest, the twin-born
Maid,

With face averted and unsteady eyes,
Her truant playmate's faded robe puts on;
And inly shrinking from her own disguise
Enacts the faery Boy that's lost and gone.
O worse than all! O pang all pangs above,
Is Kindness counterfeiting absent Love!

TO A LADY,

OFFENDED BY A SPORTIVE OBSERVATION THAT

WOMEN HAVE NO SOULS.*

AY, dearest Anna! why so grave?
I said, you had no soul, 'tis true!
For what you are, you cannot have:
'Tis I, that have one, since I first
hád you!

* To be found in Southey's Omniana, 1812.

REASON FOR LOVE'S BLINDNESS.*

HAVE heard of reasons manifold
Why Love must needs be blind,
But this the best of all I hold,-
His eyes are in his mind,

What outward form and feature are
He guesseth but in part;
But what within is good and fair
He seeth with the heart.

Both were mine! Life went a-maying
With Nature, Hope, and Poesy,

* The heading is taken from the index of the edition of 1828. There is no heading in the text of that edition, nor in text or index of the edition of 1834.

+ In The Bijou, 1828. Sara Coleridge fixes 1810 as the date of this poem. The first verse may be of an earlier date, even as early as 1803. For the second even 1810 seems too early. It is early, at thirty-eight, for Coleridge

to say

"I see these locks in silvery slips,

This drooping gait, this alter'd size: "

When I was young!

When I was young ?—Ah, woful when!
Ah! for the change 'twixt Now and Then!
This breathing house1 not built with hands,
This body that does me grievous wrong,
O'er aery cliffs and glittering2 sands,
How lightly then it flash'd along:-
Like those trim skiffs,3 unknown of yore,
On winding lakes and rivers wide,
That ask no aid of sail or oar,

That fear no spite of wind or tide!

Nought cared this body for wind or weather When Youth and I lived in't together.*

Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like;
Friendship is a sheltering tree;

moreover, we learn from Gillman that "in the latter part of his life, from a lateral curvature in the spine, he shortened gradually from two to three inches." (Coleridge's original height was 5 ft. 9 in.) The third stanza was in part written in 1827, as we gather from a note by Coleridge of that date, but it does not appear in The Bijou, nor in the edition of 1828, and must have been completed later.

Perhaps the most exquisite of his lyrical poems, Coleridge tenderly retouched the earlier stanzas of Youth and Age as late as 1828. The changes, in fact, are made in the edition of that year. We append some various readings, to illustrate his care and taste.

Breathing house.] "House of clay.”—Bij.

2 Aery cliffs and glittering, &c.]

"Hill and dale and sounding," &c.-Ib.

3 Skiffs.] "Boats."-Ib.

4 Nought cared, &c.] So in An Ode to the Rain :

"Days and months, and almost years,

Have limp'd on through this vale of tears,
Since body of mine, and rainy weather,
Have lived on easy terms together."

O! the joys, that came down shower-like,
Of Friendship, Love, and Liberty,

Ere I was old!

Ere I was old? Ah woful Ere,
Which tells me, Youth's no longer here!
O Youth! for years so many2 and sweet,
'Tis known, that Thou and I were one,
I'll think it but a fond 3 conceit,-
It cannot be, that Thou art gone!
Thy vesper-bell hath not yet toll'd:—
And thou wert aye a masker bold!
What strange disguise hast now put on,
To make believe, that Thou art gone?
I see these locks in silvery slips,

5

4

This drooping gait, this alter'd size :
But spring-tide blossoms on thy lips,
And tears take sunshine from thine eyes!
Life is but thought: so think I will
That Youth and I are house-mates still.

Dew-drops are the gems of morning,
But the tears of mournful

eve !

Where no hope is, life's a warning 7
That only serves to make us grieve,

1 Friendship, Love, &c.] "Beauty, Truth, &c."-Bij. 2 Many.] Merry."-Ib. Probably a misprint. Fond.] "False.”—Ib.

4

Silvery.] Coleridge's hair, like his son Hartley's, turned white prematurely.

5

Drooping.] "Dragging."-Bij.

Mournful.] We find " dewy" in a note of Coleridge's of 1827, where the line is quoted. See Derwent Coleridge's edition of 1852.

7 Warning.] We cannot understand the force of this word. Compare Mrs. Barbauld's lines :

"Life! we've been long together,

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather:

When we are old:

That only serves to make us grieve
With oft and tedious taking-leave,
Like some poor nigh-related guest,
That may not rudely be dismist;
Yet hath outstay'd his welcome while,
And tells the jest without the smile.

FAREWELL TO LOVE.*

AREWELL, sweet Love! yet blame you not my truth;

More fondly ne'er did mother eye her child

Than I your form: yours were my hopes of youth,

And as you shaped my thoughts, I sigh'd or

smiled.

While most were wooing wealth, or gaily swerving

To pleasure's secret haunt, and some apart Stood strong in pride, self-conscious of deserving,

'Tis hard to part when friends are dear;
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear;

Then steal away, give little warning,

Choose thine own time,

Say not Good Night, but in some brighter clime

Bid me Good Morning."

* Printed in 1815. The poem is meant to be a sonnet, after the Shaksperian form.