The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition). Samuel Taylor Coleridge

      THE EOLIAN HARP

      COMPOSED AT CLEVEDON, SOMERSETSHIRE

      My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclined

      Thus on mine arm, most soothing sweet it is

      To sit beside our Cot, our Cot o’ergrown

      With white-flower’d Jasmin, and the broad-leav’d Myrtle,

      (Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!) 5

      And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light.

      Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve

      Serenely brilliant (such should Wisdom be)

      Shine opposite! How exquisite the scents

      Snatch’d from yon beanfield! and the world so hush’d! 10

      The stilly murmur of the distant Sea

      Tells us of silence.

      And that simplest Lute,

      Placed lengthways in the clasping casement, hark!

      How by the desultory breeze caress’d,

      Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover, 15

      It pours such sweet upbraiding, as must needs

      Tempt to repeat the wrong! And now, its strings

      Boldlier swept, the long sequacious notes

      Over delicious surges sink and rise,

      Such a soft floating witchery of sound 20

      As twilight Elfins make, when they at eve

      Voyage on gentle gales from Fairy-Land,

      Where Melodies round honey-dropping flowers,

      Footless and wild, like birds of Paradise,

      Nor pause, nor perch, hovering on untam’d wing! 25

      O! the one Life within us and abroad,

      Which meets all motion and becomes its soul,

      A light in sound, a sound-like power in light,

      Rhythm in all thought, and joyance every where —

      Methinks, it should have been impossible 30

      Not to love all things in a world so fill’d;

      Where the breeze warbles, and the mute still air

      Is Music slumbering on her instrument.

      And thus, my Love! as on the midway slope

      Of yonder hill I stretch my limbs at noon, 35

      Whilst through my half-closed eyelids I behold

      The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main,

      And tranquil muse upon tranquillity;

      Full many a thought uncall’d and undetain’d,

      And many idle flitting phantasies, 40

      Traverse my indolent and passive brain,

      As wild and various as the random gales

      That swell and flutter on this subject Lute!

      And what if all of animated nature

      Be but organic Harps diversely fram’d, 45

      That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps

      Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,

      At once the Soul of each, and God of all?

      But thy more serious eye a mild reproof

      Darts, O belovéd Woman! nor such thoughts 50

      Dim and unhallow’d dost thou not reject,

      And biddest me walk humbly with my God.

      Meek Daughter in the family of Christ!

      Well hast thou said and holily disprais’d

      These shapings of the unregenerate mind; 55

      Bubbles that glitter as they rise and break

      On vain Philosophy’s aye-babbling spring.

      For never guiltless may I speak of him,

      The Incomprehensible! save when with awe

      I praise him, and with Faith that inly feels; 60

      Who with his saving mercies healéd me,

      A sinful and most miserable man,

      Wilder’d and dark, and gave me to possess

      Peace, and this Cot, and thee, heart-honour’d Maid!