ΕΠΙΤΑΦΙΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΓΡΑΠΤΟΝ.

QUE linquam, aut nihil, aut nihili, aut vix sunt measordes

Do morti;-reddo cætera, Christe! tibi.

TO THE YOUNG ARTIST, KAYSER OF
KAYSERWERTH.

KASYER! to whom, as to a second self,
Nature, or Nature's next-of-kin, the Elf,
Hight Genius, hath dispensed the happy skill
To cheer or soothe the parting friends, alas!
Turning the blank scroll to a magic glass,
That makes the absent present at our will;
And to the shadowing of thy pencil gives
Such seeming substance, that it almost lives.

Well hast thou given the thoughtful Poet's face!
Yet hast thou on the tablet of his mind
A more delightful portrait left behind-
Ev'n thy own youthful beauty, and artless grace,
Thy natural gladness and eyes bright with glee!
Kayser farewell!

Be wise! be happy! and forget not me.

1833.

MY BAPTISMAL BIRTH-DAY.

GOD's child in Christ adopted,-Christ my all,—
What that earth boasts were not lost cheaply, rather
Than forfeit that blest name, by which I call

The Holy One, the Almighty God, my Father?—
Father! in Christ we live, and Christ in Thee—
Eternal Thou, and everlasting we.

The heir of heaven, henceforth I fear not death:
In Christ I live! in Christ I draw the breath
Of the true life!-Let then earth, sea, and sky
Make war against me! On my front I show
Their mighty master's seal. In vain they try
To end my life, that can but end its woe.—
Is that a death-bed where a Christian lies?—
Yes! but not his 'tis Death itself there dies.

EPITAPH.

STOP, Christian Passer-by!-Stop, child of God,
And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sod
A poet lies, or that which once seem'd he.-
O, lift one thought in prayer for S. T. C.;
That he who many a year with toil of breath
Found death in life, may here find life in death!
Mercy for praise-to be forgiven for fame
He ask'd, and hoped, through Christ.

same!

Do thou the

9th November, 1833.

NOTES.

PAGE 3.-FIRST ADVENT OF LOVE.

THE early date assigned to these exquisite lines is derived from a memorandum of the author. "Relics of my School-boy Muse; i. e. fragments of poems composed before my fifteenth

year.

LOVE'S FIRST HOPE

'O fair is Love's first hope,' &c.

The concluding stanza of an Elegy on a Lady, who died in early youth:

O'er the raised earth the gales of evening sigh;

And see, a Daisy peeps upon its slope!

I wipe the dimming waters from mine eye;

Even on the cold Grave lights the Cherub Hope!

AGE-A stanza written forty years later than the preceding:

Dew-drops are the Gems of Morning,

But the tears of dewy Eve!

Where no Hope is, Life's a warning,
That only serves to make us grieve,
When we are old.

GENEVIEVE.

S. T. C., Sept., 1827."

"This little poem was written when the author was a boy."

Note to the edition of 1796.

THE RAVEN AND TIME, REAL AND IMAGINARY, are mentioned as "School-boy Poems" in the Preface to the "Sibylline Leaves," published in 1817.

PAGE 13.-KISSES.

This "Effusion" and "The Rose" were originally addressed to a Miss F. Nesbitt, at Plymouth, whither the author accompanied his eldest brother, to whom he was paying a visit, when he was twenty-one years of age. Both poems are written in pencil on the blank pages of a copy of Langhorne's Collins. "Kisses" is entitled "Cupid turned Chymist;" is signed S. T. Coleridge, and dated Friday evening, 1793,

"THE ROSE" has this heading:-"On presenting a Moss Rose to Miss F. Nesbitt." In both poems the name of Nesbitt appears instead of Sara, afterwards substituted.

"KISSES" has this note in the edition of 1796:

"Effinxit quondam blandum meditata laborem,
Basia lasciva Cypria Diva manu.
Ambrosiæ succos occultâ temperat arte,
Fragransque infuso nectare tingit opus.
Sufficit et partem mellis, quod subdolus olim
Non impune favis surripuisset Amor.
Decussos violæ foliis admiscet odores,

Et spolia æstivis plurima rapta rosis:
Addit et illecebras, et mille et mille lepores
Et quot Acidalius gaudia Cestus habet.
Ex his composuit Dea basia; et omnia libans
Invenias nitida sparsa per ora Cloes."

Carm. Quad, vol. ii

PAGE 17.-LINES ON AN AUTUMNAL EVENING.

In the edition of 1796, this poem is stated to have been written in early youth; and in a note to the line "O (have I sighed) were mine the wizard's rod," the author "entreats the Public's

pardon for having carelessly suffered to be printed such intolerable stuff as this and the thirteen following lines;" adding, "that they have not even the merit of originality, as every thought is to be found in the Greek epigrams." In the edition brought out the following year, the whole poem was first omitted, but eventually "reprieved" and printed in an Appendix, at the request of some intelligent friends, who observed, that "what most delighted the author when he was young in writing would probably best please those who are young in reading poetry," and that "a man must learn to be pleased with a subject before he can yield that attention to it which is necessary in order to acquire a just taste." In the edition of 1803 the poem appears in its proper place, without any remark. Few readers will have regretted that this bright and popular strain was thus rescued from the hasty condemnation of its youthful author. In the note, the author repels an imputation of plagiarism from Mr. Rogers's “Pleasures of Memory,” and brings a similar charge against his distinguished cotemporary. He finds the original of the tale of "Florio," "in 'Lochleven,' a poem of great merit by Michael Bruce." This assertion he afterwards withdrew, apologizing (in the Appendix above referred to) for his rashness, in very handsome terms. This occurred fifty-six years ago. Mr. Rogers still lives to wear his unwithering laurels. He has seen two generations of his poetic brethren pass away,—μετὰ δὲ τριτάτοισιν ἀνάσσει.

The following note, in the edition of 1796, may be cited as a proof how early, and how decidedly, the genius of Wordsworth was detected and proclaimed by Coleridge:-"The expression, 'green radiance,'" he says, (referring to the "Lines Written at Shurton Bars," p. 54 of the present edition,) "is borrowed from Mr. Wordsworth, a poet whose versification is occasionally harsh, and his diction too frequently obscure," (the “Descriptive Sketches," and "Evening Walk," published 1793, since republished, with numerous corrections, as juvenile pieces, were the poems thus characterised); "but whom I deem unrivalled among the writers of the present day in manly sentiment, novel imagery, and vivid colouring."

D. C.