The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol 1 (of 2)Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
General
The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol 1 (of 2)
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
English poetry -- 19th century
[39:1] First published in 1796: included in 1803, 1828, 1829, and 1834.
These lines were included in a letter from Coleridge to Mary Evans,
dated Feb. 7, 1793. In 1796 and 1803 the following note was
attached:--'How long will ye roll around me, blue-tumbling waters of
Ocean. My dwelling is not always in caves; nor beneath the whistling
tree. My [The] feast is spread in Torthoma's Hall. [My father delighted
in my voice.] The youths beheld me in [the steps of] my loveliness. They
blessed the dark-haired Nina-thomà.'--Berrathon [Ossian's _Poems_, 1819,
ii. 484].
LINENOTES:
Title] Effusion xxx. The Complaint, &c., 1796.
[5] halls] Hall Letter, 1793.
[8] white-bosom'd] dark-tressed Letter, 1793.
[Between 8-9]
By my friends, by my Lovers discarded,
Like the flower of the Rock now I waste,
That lifts her fair head unregarded,
And scatters its leaves on the blast.
Letter, 1793.
[13] disturb'd] dispers'd Letter, 1793.
SONGS OF THE PIXIES[40:1]
The Pixies, in the superstition of Devonshire, are a race of beings
invisibly small, and harmless or friendly to man. At a small distance
from a village in that county, half-way up a wood-covered hill, is an
excavation called the Pixies' Parlour. The roots of old trees form its
ceiling; and on its sides are innumerable cyphers, among which the
author discovered his own cypher and those of his brothers, cut by the
hand of their childhood. At the foot of the hill flows the river Otter.
To this place the Author, during the summer months of the year 1793,
conducted a party of young ladies; one of whom, of stature elegantly
small, and of complexion colourless yet clear, was proclaimed the Faery
Queen. On which occasion the following Irregular Ode was written.
I
Whom the untaught Shepherds call
Pixies in their madrigal,
Fancy's children, here we dwell:
Welcome, Ladies! to our cell.
Here the wren of softest note 5
Builds its nest and warbles well;
Here the blackbird strains his throat;
Welcome, Ladies! to our cell.
II
When fades the moon to shadowy-pale,
And scuds the cloud before the gale, 10
Ere the Morn all gem-bedight
Hath streak'd the East with rosy light,
We sip the furze-flower's fragrant dews
Clad in robes of rainbow hues;
Or sport amid the shooting gleams 15
To the tune of distant-tinkling teams,
While lusty Labour scouting sorrow
Bids the Dame a glad good-morrow,
Who jogs the accustom'd road along,
And paces cheery to her cheering song. 20
III
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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