15 Look round her when the heavens are bare; III Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, To me alone there came a thought of grief; 20 But trailing clouds of glory do we come 65 24 The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep; No more shall grief of mine the season wrong; The winds come to me from the fields of sleep, Land and sea Give themselves up to jollity, And with the heart of May Doth every beast keep holiday; Thou child of joy, 30 Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy shepherd-boy! IV 35 Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Upon the growing boy, But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, The Youth, who daily farther from the east At length the Man perceives it die away, VI 70 75 Behold the Child among his new-born blisses, A wedding or a festival, A mourning or a funeral; And this hath now his heart, To dialogues of business, love, or strife; But there's a tree, of many, one, 50 Ere this be thrown aside, 55 And with new joy and pride Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; SONNETS ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC 5 Once did She hold the gorgeous east in fee; And was the safeguard of the west: the worth Of Venice did not fall below her birth, Venice, the eldest child of Liberty. She was a maiden city, bright and free; No guile seduced, no force could violate; And, when she took unto herself a Mate, She must espouse the everlasting Sea. And what if she had seen those glories fade, Those titles vanish, and that strength decay; Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid When her long life hath reached its final day: Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade ΙΟ Of that which once was great is passed away. roll, Strength to the brave, and Power, and Deity; Yet in themselves are nothing! One decree Spake laws to them, and said that by the soul Only, the nations shall be great and free. 5 5 COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, SEPT. 3, 1802 Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: ΙΟ 5 This City now doth, like a garment, wear ON THE SEA-SHORE NEAR CALAIS It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, I thought of thee, my partner and my guide, We Men, who in our morn of youth defied To live, and act, and serve the future hour; We feel that we are greater than we know. MOST SWEET IT IS 5 Most sweet it is with unuplifted eyes way, I I Whate'er the senses take or may refuse, Of inspiration on the humblest lay. SCORN NOT THE SONNET Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have Mindless of its just honours; with this key A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound; 5 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834) BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA CHAP. XIV During the first year that Mr. Wordsworth and I were neighbours, our conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination. The sudden charm, which accidents of light and shade, which moonlight or sunset, diffused over a known and familiar landscape, appeared to represent the practicability of combining both. These are the poetry of nature. The thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, the incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural; and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have been to every human being who, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life; the characters and incidents were to be such as will be found in every village and its vicinity where there is a meditative and feeling mind to seek after them, or to notice them when they present themselves. In this idea originated the plan of the "Lyrical Ballads"; in which it was agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at |