The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Chapter 52 : But long time pa.s.sed not, ere that brighter cloud 430 Returned more bright; along the

But long time pa.s.sed not, ere that brighter cloud 430 Returned more bright; along the plain it swept; And soon from forth its bursting sides emerged A dazzling form, broad-bosomed, bold of eye, And wild her hair, save where with laurels bound.

Not more majestic stood the healing G.o.d,[146:1] 435 When from his bow the arrow sped that slew Huge Python. Shriek'd Ambition's giant throng, And with them hissed the locust-fiends that crawled And glittered in Corruption's slimy track.

Great was their wrath, for short they knew their reign; 440 And such commotion made they, and uproar, As when the mad Tornado bellows through The guilty islands of the western main, What time departing from their native sh.o.r.es,[146:2]

Eboe, or Koromantyn's plain of palms, 445 The infuriate spirits of the murdered make Fierce merriment, and vengeance ask of Heaven.

Warmed with new influence, the unwholesome plain Sent up its foulest fogs to meet the morn: The Sun that rose on Freedom, rose in Blood! 450

'Maiden beloved, and Delegate of Heaven!

(To her the tutelary Spirit said) Soon shall the Morning struggle into Day, The stormy Morning into cloudless Noon.

Much hast thou seen, nor all canst understand-- 455 But this be thy best omen--Save thy Country!'

Thus saying, from the answering Maid he pa.s.sed, And with him disappeared the heavenly Vision.

'Glory to Thee, Father of Earth and Heaven!

All-conscious Presence of the Universe! 460 Nature's vast ever-acting Energy![147:1]

In will, in deed, Impulse of All to All!

Whether thy Love with unrefracted ray Beam on the Prophet's purged eye, or if Diseasing realms the Enthusiast, wild of thought, 465 Scatter new frenzies on the infected throng, Thou both inspiring and predooming both, Fit instruments and best, of perfect end: Glory to Thee, Father of Earth and Heaven!'

And first a landscape rose 470 More wild and waste and desolate than where The white bear, drifting on a field of ice, Howls to her sundered cubs with piteous rage And savage agony.

1796.

FOOTNOTES:

[131:1] First published, in its entirety, in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834. Two hundred and fifty-five lines were included in Book II of _Joan of Arc, An Epic Poem_, by Robert Southey, Bristol and London, 1796, 4{o}. The greater part of the remaining 212 lines were written in 1796, and formed part of an unpublished poem ent.i.tled _The Progress of Liberty_ or _The Vision of the Maid of Orleans_, or _Visions of the Maid of Orleans_, or _Visions of the Maid of Arc_, or _The Vision of the Patriot Maiden_. (See letter to Poole, Dec. 13, and letter to J. Thelwall, Dec. 17, 1796, _Letters of S. T.

C._, 1895, i. 192, 206. See, too, Cottle's _Early Recollections_, 1837, i. 230; and, for Lamb's criticism of a first draft of the poem, his letters to Coleridge, dated Jan. 5 and Feb. 12, 1797.) For a reprint of _Joan of Arc_, Book the Second (Preternatural Agency), see Cottle's _Early Recollections_, 1837, ii. 241-62.

The texts of 1828, 1829 (almost but not quite identical) vary slightly from that of the _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817, and, again, the text of 1834 varies from that of 1828 and 1829. These variants (on a proof-sheet of the edition of 1828) are in Coleridge's own handwriting, and afford convincing evidence that he did take some part in the preparation of the text of his poems for the last edition issued in his own lifetime.

[133:1] Balda-Zhiok, i. e. mons alt.i.tudinis, the highest mountain in Lapland.

[133:2] Solfar-kapper: capitium Solfar, hic locus omnium, quotquot veterum Lapponum superst.i.tio sacrificiisque religiosoque cultui dedicavit, celebratissimus erat, in parte sinus australis situs, semimilliaris spatio a mari distans. Ipse locus, quem curiositatis gratia aliquando me invisisse memini, duabus praealtis lapidibus, sibi invicem oppositis, quorum alter musco circ.u.mdatus erat, constabat.

[134:1] The Lapland women carry their infants at their backs in a piece of excavated wood which serves them for a cradle: opposite to the infant's mouth there is a hole for it to breathe through.

Mirandum prorsus est et vix credibile nisi cui vidisse contigit.

Lappones hyeme iter facientes per vastos montes, perque horrida et invia tesqua, eo praesertim tempore quo omnia perpetuis nivibus obtecta sunt et nives ventis agitantur et in gyros aguntur, viam ad destinata loca absque errore invenire posse, lactantem autem infantem, si quem habeat, ipsa mater in dorso baiulat, in excavato ligno (Gieed'k ipsi vocant) quod pro cunis utuntur, in hoc infans pannis et pellibus convolutus colligatus iacet.--LEEMIUS DE LAPPONIBUS.

[134:2] Jaibme Aibmo.

[135:1] They call the Good Spirit, Torngarsuck. The other great but malignant spirit a nameless female; she dwells under the sea in a great house where she can detain in captivity all the animals of the ocean by her magic power. When a dearth befalls the Greenlanders, an Angekok or magician must undertake a journey thither: he pa.s.ses through the kingdom of souls, over an horrible abyss into the palace of this phantom, and by his enchantments causes the captive creatures to ascend directly to the surface of the ocean. See Crantz, _History of Greenland_, vol. i. 206.

[140:1] These are very fine Lines, tho' I say it, that should not: but, hang me, if I know or ever did know the meaning of them, tho' my own composition. _MS. Note by S. T. C._

[142:1] Rev. vi. 9, 11: And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of G.o.d and for the Testimony which they held. And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little Season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren that should be killed, as they were, should be fulfilled.

[144:1] A grievous defect here in the rhyme recalling a.s.sonance of Pe?ace, swe?et eve, che?ek. Better thus:--

Sweet are thy Songs, O Peace! lenient of care.

_S. T. C._, _1828_.

[144:2] 388-93 Southeyan. To be omitted. _S. T. C._, _1828_.

[144:3] A vile line [_foul_ is underlined]. _S. T. C._, _1828_.

[146:1] The Apollo Belvedere.

[146:2] The Slaves in the West-India Islands consider Death as a pa.s.sport to their native country. The Sentiment is thus expressed in the Introduction to a Greek Prize Ode on the Slave-Trade, of which the Ideas are better than the Language or Metre, in which they are conveyed:--

? s??t?? p??a?, T??ate, p???e?p??

?? ????? spe?d??? ?p??e????? ?t?[146:A]; ?? ?e??s??s? ?e???? spa?a????

??d' ???????,

???? ?a? ??????s? ?????t?p??s?

??s?t?? ?a??; f?e??? ?? ?ss?, ???' ??? ??e??e??? s?????e??, St???? ???a??e!

?as????? ?p? pte???ess? s?s?

?! ?a??ss??? ?a?????te? ??da ???e??p????t??? ?p? p?ss' ??e?s?

?at??d' ?p' a?a?,

???a ?? ??asta? ??????s??

?f? p???s?? ??t????? ?p' ??s??, ?ss' ?p? ??t??? ?pa??? ??t??, t?

?e??? ?????t?.

LITERAL TRANSLATION.

Leaving the gates of Darkness, O Death! hasten thou to a Race yoked to Misery! Thou wilt not be received with lacerations of Cheeks, nor with funereal ululation, but with circling Dances and the joy of Songs. Thou art terrible indeed, yet thou dwellest with LIBERTY, stern GENIUS! Borne on thy dark pinions over the swelling of Ocean they return to their native country. There by the side of fountains beneath Citron groves, the Lovers tell to their Beloved, what horrors, being Men, they had endured from Men.

[146:A] ? before ? ought to have been made long; d??? ?po? is an Amphimacer not (as the metre here requires) a Dactyl. _S.

T. C._

[147:1] Tho' these Lines may bear a sane sense, yet they are easily, and more naturally interpreted with a very false and dangerous one. But I was at that time one of the _Mongrels_, the Josephidites [Josephides = the Son of Joseph], a proper name of distinction from those who believe _in_, as well as believe Christ the only begotten Son of the Living G.o.d before all Time. _MS. Note by S. T. C._

LINENOTES:

[1] No more of Usurpation's doom'd defeat 4{o}.

[5-6]

Beneath whose shadowy banners wide unfurl'd Justice leads forth her tyrant-quelling hosts.

4{o}, Sibylline Leaves.

[5] THE WILL, THE WORD, THE BREATH, THE LIVING G.o.d 1828, 1829.

[6] _Added in_ 1834.