ON AN AMOROUS DOCTOR. FROM Rufa's eye sly Cupid shot his dart, In short unless she pities his afflictions, Despair will make him take his own prescriptions. 1796. TRANSLATION. DEPART in joy from this world's noise and strife TO A PRIMROSE, (THE FIRST SEEN IN THE SEASON.) · nitens, et roboris expers Turget et insolida est: at spe delectat.-Ovid. THY smiles I note, sweet early flower, But tender blossom, why so pale? Such the wan lustre sickness wears, EPIGRAM. 1796. HOARSE Mævius reads his hobbling verse And finds them both divinely smooth, Yet folks say " Mævius is no ass :" But Mævius makes it clear, That he's a monster of an ass, An ass without an ear. 1797. INTRODUCTION TO THE TALE OF THE DARK LADIE. THE following poem is intended as the introduction to a somewhat longer one. The use of the old ballad word Ladie for Lady, is the only piece of obsoleteness in it; and as it is professedly a tale of ancient times, I trust that the affectionate lovers of venerable antiquity, as Camden says, will grant me their pardon, and perhaps may be induced to admit a force and propriety in it. A heavier objection may be adduced against the author, that in these times of fear and expectation, when novelties explode around us in all directions, he should presume to offer to the public a silly tale of old-fashioned love: and five years ago, I own I should have allowed and felt the force of this objection. But alas! explosion after explosion has succeeded so rapidly, that novelty itself ceases to appear new; and it is possible that now, even a simple story wholly uninspired with politics or personality, may find some attention amid the hubbub of revolutions, as to those who have remained a long time by the falls of Niagara, the lowest whispering becomes distinctly audible. 1799 O LEAVE the lily on its stem; O leave the elder bloom, fair maids! And listen to my lay. A cypress and a myrtle-bough This morn around my harp you twined, Its murmurs in the wind. And now a tale of love and woe, INSCRIPTION BY THE REV. W. S. BOWLES. IN NETHER STOWEY CHURCH. LETUS abi; mundi strepitu curisque remotus, Ipsa Fides loquitur, lacrymanque incausat inamen, Heu! tantum liceat meritos hos soliere ritus Et longum tremula dicere voce, vale! EPILOGUE TO THE RASH CONJUROR. AN UNCOMPOSED POEM. WE ask and urge-(here ends the story.) That this unhappy conjuror may, Instead of Hell, be put in Purgatory, For then there's hope ; Long live the Pope! 1805. PSYCHE. THE butterfly the ancient Grecians made And to deform and kill the things whereon we feed. 1808. COMPLAINT. How seldom, Friend! a good great man inherits REPROOF. FOR shame, dear Friend! renounce this canting strain! Or throne of corses which his sword hath slain ?— APPOINTED FOR THE DEPARTURE OF A VERY WOR- I KNOW it is dark; and though I have lain You're but a doleful sound at best: O Rain! you will but take your flight, O Rain! with your dull two-fold sound, The clash hard by, and the murmur all round! Since body of mine and rainy weather, O Rain! you will but take your flight, I'll nothing speak of you but well. But only for this one day, Do go, dear Rain! do go away! Dear Rain! I ne'er refuse to say Dear Rain! if I've been cold and sby, We three you mark! and not one more! Do go, dear Rain! do go away. And this I'll swear to you, dear Rain! Nor should you go away, dear Rain! But only now, for this one day, TRANSLATION 1809. OF A PASSAGE IN OTTFRIED'S METRICAL PARAPHRASE OF THE GOSPELS. "THIS Paraphrase, written about the time of Charlemagne, is by no means deficient in occasional passages of considerable poetic merit. There is a flow, and a tender enthusiasm in the following lines (at the conclusion of Chapter V.), which even in the translation will not, I flatter myself, fail to interest the reader. Ottfried is describing the circumstances immediately following the birth of our Lord."- Biog. Lit. vol. i. p. 203. SHE gave with joy her virgin breast; Who wrapp'd his limbs in swaddling clothes, Hung o'er him with her looks of love, With such a babe in one blest bed, 1810. “Most interesting is it to consider the effect, when the feelings are wrought above the natural pitch by the belief of something mysterious, while all the images are purely natural; then it is that religion and poetry strike deepest."- Biog. Lit. vol. i. p. 204. THE ALTERNATIVE. THIS way or that, ye Powers above me! I of my grief were rid Did Enna either really love me, Or cease to think she did. 1826. INSCRIPTION FOR A TIME-PIECE. Now! It is gone. - Our brief hours travel post, Each with its thought or deed, its Why or How But know, each parting hour gives up a ghost, To dwell within thee—an eternal Now! 1830. ΕΠΙΤΑΦΙΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΓΡΑΠΤΟΝ. Quæ linguam, aut nihil, aut nihili, aut vix sunt mea:-cosordes Do Morti;-reddo cætera, Christe! tibi. THE END OF COLERIDGE'S POETICAL WORKS. 243 |