The entire text of the second volume, afterwards ent.i.tled _Sibylline Leaves_, with the exception of the preliminary matter, pp. [i]-[xii], was printed by John Evans & Co. of Bristol--signatures B-G in November-December 1814, and signatures H-U between January and July 1815. The unbound sheets, which were held as a security for the cost of printing &c., and for money advanced, by W. Hood of Bristol, John Matthew Gutch, and others, were redeemed in May 1817 by a London publisher, Rest Fenner, and his partner the Rev. Samuel Curtis of Camberwell. The _Biographia Literaria_ was published in July and _Sibylline Leaves_ in August, 1817. See note by J. D. Campbell in _P.

W._, 1893, pp. 551, 552.]

PREFACE

The following collection has been ent.i.tled SIBYLLINE LEAVES, in allusion to the fragmentary and widely scattered state in which they have been long suffered to remain. It contains the whole of the author's poetical compositions, from 1793 to the present date, with the exception of a few works not yet finished, and those published in the first edition of his juvenile poems, over which he has no controul.[1150:1] They may be divided into three cla.s.ses: First, A selection from the Poems added to the second and third editions, together with those originally published in the LYRICAL BALLADS,[1150:2] which after having remained many years out of print, have been omitted by Mr. Wordsworth in the recent collection of all his minor poems, and of course revert to the author.

Second, Poems published at very different periods, in various obscure or perishable journals, etc., some with, some without the writer's consent; many imperfect, all incorrect. The third and last cla.s.s is formed of Poems which have hitherto remained in ma.n.u.script. The whole is now presented to the reader collectively, with considerable additions and alterations, and as perfect as the author's judgment and powers could render them.

In my Literary _Life_, it has been mentioned that, with the exception of this preface, the SIBYLLINE LEAVES have been printed almost two years; and the necessity of troubling the reader with the list of errata[1151:1] [forty-seven in number] which follows this preface, alone induces me to refer again to the circ.u.mstances, at the risk of ungenial feelings, from the recollection of its worthless causes.[1151:2] A few corrections of later date have been added.--Henceforward the author must be occupied by studies of a very different kind.

Ite hinc, CAMNae! Vos quoque ite, suaves, Dulces CAMNae! Nam (fatebimur verum) Dulces fuistis!--Et tamen meas chartas Revisitote: sed pudenter et raro!

VIRGIL, _Catalect._ vii.[1151:3]

At the request of the friends of my youth, who still remain my friends, and who were pleased with the wildness of the compositions, I have added two school-boy poems--with a song modernized with some additions from one of our elder poets.[1151:4] Surely, malice itself will scarcely attribute their insertion to any other motive, than the wish to keep alive the recollections from early life.--I scarcely knew what t.i.tle I should prefix to the first. By imaginary Time,[1151:5] I meant the state of a school-boy's mind when, on his return to school, he projects his being in his day dreams, and lives in his next holidays, six months hence: and this I contrasted with real Time.

CONTENTS

[Poems first published in 1796 and in 1797 are marked with an asterisk.

Poems first published in 1817 are italicized. N.B. The volume was issued without any Table of Contents or Index of First Lines.]

PAGE

_Time, Real and Imaginary: an Allegory_ v The Raven vi Mutual Pa.s.sion ix The Rime of the Ancient Mariner [with the marginal glosses] 3 The Foster-Mother's Tale 41

Half-t.i.tle

POEMS / OCCASIONED BY POLITICAL EVENTS / OR / FEELINGS CONNECTED WITH THEM [47]

Wordsworth's sonnet beginning 'When I have borne in memory what has tamed' is printed on [48]

*Ode to the Departing Year [Half-t.i.tle] [49]

France: _An Ode_ 59 Fears in Solitude 64 Recantation. _Ill.u.s.trated in the Story of the Mad Ox_ 75 Parliamentary Oscillators 83

Half-t.i.tle

[=Fire, Famine, and Slaughter.=] / A War Eclogue. / With / An Apologetic Preface / [87]

Mottoes from _Claudian_ and _Ecclesiasticus_ [88]

[_AN APOLOGETIC PREFACE_] 89 Fire, Famine and Slaughter 111

Half-t.i.tle

LOVE-POEMS [117]

Motto (eleven lines) from 'Petrarch' [118]

Love 119 Lewti, or the Circa.s.sian Love-chant 124 The Picture, or the Lover's Resolution 128 _The Night-Scene: A Dramatic Fragment_ 136 *To an Unfortunate Woman, _Whom the Author had known in the days of her Innocence_ 141 To an Unfortunate Woman at the Theatre 142 Lines composed in a Concert-room 144 The Keep-sake 146 _To a Lady, with Falconer's 'Shipwreck'_ 148 To a Young Lady, _On her Recovery from a Fever_ 150 Something Childish, but very Natural. _Written in Germany_ 152 Home-sick. _Written in Germany_ 153 Answer to a Child's Question 154 _The Visionary Hope_ 155 _The Happy Husband. A Fragment_ 157 _Recollections of Love_ 159 On Re-visiting the Sea-Sh.o.r.e, After Long Absence, _Under strong medical recommendation not to bathe_ 161

Half-t.i.tle

'MEDITATIVE POEMS / IN / BLANK VERSE' [163]

Motto (eight lines) from _Schiller_ [164]

Hymn _Before Sunrise, in the Vale of Chamouny_ 165 Lines _Written in the Alb.u.m at Elbingerode, in the Hartz Forest_ 170 *On observing a Blossom _On the 1st February, 1796_ 173 *The Eolian Harp, _Composed at Clevedon, Somersetshire_ 175 *Reflections _On having left a Place of Retirement_ 178 *To the Rev. George Coleridge, _Of Ottery St. Mary, Devon_. With some Poems 182 Inscription _For a Fountain on a Heath_ 186 A Tombless Epitaph 187 This Lime-tree Bower my Prison 189 To a Friend _Who had declared his intention of writing no more Poetry_ 194 _TO A GENTLEMAN. Composed on the night after his recitation of a Poem on the Growth of an Individual Mind_ 197 The Nightingale; a Conversation Poem 204 Frost at Midnight 210

Half-t.i.tle

[=The=] / [=Three Graves=] / [215]

The Three Graves. A Fragment of a s.e.xton's Tale 217

Half-t.i.tle

ODES / AND / MISCELLANEOUS POEMS [235]

Dejection: _An Ode_ 237 Ode to Georgiana, d.u.c.h.ess of Devonshire, _On the 24th stanza in her 'Pa.s.sage over Mount Gothard'_ 244 Ode to Tranquillity 249 *To a Young Friend, _On his proposing to Domesticate with the Author_ Composed in 1796 251 Lines _To W. L., Esq., while he sang a song to Purcell's Music_ 255 Addressed to a Young Man of Fortune _Who abandoned himself to an indolent and causeless Melancholy_ 256 *Sonnet to the River Otter 257 *Sonnet. _Composed on a journey homeward; the Author having received intelligence of the birth of a Son, September 20, 1796_ 258 *Sonnet, _To a Friend who asked, how I felt when the Nurse first presented my Infant to me_ 259 The Virgin's Cradle-Hymn. Copied from a Print of the Virgin, in a Catholic village in Germany 260 Epitaph, on an Infant. ['Its balmy lips the Infant blest.'] 261 Melancholy. A Fragment 262 _Tell's Birth-place. Imitated from s...o...b..rg_ 263 A Christmas Carol 265 _Human Life. On the Denial of Immortality. A Fragment_ 268 An Ode to the Rain. _Composed before daylight_ [etc.] 270 _The Visit of the G.o.ds. Imitated from Schiller_ 274 America to Great Britain. _Written in America, in the year 1810._ [By Washington Allston, the Painter.] 276 Elegy, Imitated from one of Akenside's Blank-verse Inscriptions 279 The Destiny of Nations. A Vision 281

XV

A Hebrew Dirge, / Chaunted in the Great Synagogue, / St. James's Place, Aldgate, / On the / Day of the Funeral of her Royal Highness / The / Princess Charlotte. / By Hyman Hurwitz, / Master of the Royal Academy, / Highgate: / With a Translation in / English Verse, By S. T. Coleridge, Esq. / London: / _Printed by H. Barnett_, 2, _St. James's Place, Aldgate_; / And Sold by T. Boosey, 4, Old Broad Street; / Lackington, Allen, and Co. Finsbury Square; / Briggs and Burton, 156, Leadenhall Street; and / H. Barnett, Hebrew Bookseller, 2, St. James's / Place, Aldgate. / 1817. [8{o}.

_Collation._--Half-t.i.tle, ???? ????? / A Hebrew Dirge. /, pp. [1]-[2]; t.i.tle, p. [3]; Text, pp. [4]-13. The text of the translation is printed on pp. 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13.

XVI

CHRISTABEL: / Kubla Khan, / A Vision; / The Pains of Sleep. / By / S. T.

COLERIDGE, Esq. / LONDON: Printed For John Murray, Albemarle-Street, / By William Bulmer and Co. Cleveland-Row, / St. James's. / 1816. / [8{o}.

_Collation._--Half-t.i.tle, one leaf, [=Christabel=], &c., pp. i-ii; t.i.tle, one leaf, pp. iii-iv; Preface, pp. [v]-vii; Second half-t.i.tle, Christabel. / Part 1, pp. [1]-[2]; Text, pp. [3]-48; '[=Kubla Khan=] / or / A Vision in a Dream': Half-t.i.tle, one leaf, pp. [49]-[50]; 'Of the / Fragment of Kubla Khan', pp. [51]-54; Text, pp. [55]-58; '[=The Pains of Sleep=]': Half-t.i.tle, pp. [59]-[60]; Text, pp. 61-61; The Imprint, LONDON: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. / Cleveland-row, St. James's /, is at the foot of p. 64.

[The pamphlet (1816) was issued 'price 4_s._ 6_d._ _sewed_'. The cover was of brown paper.]

XVII

CHRISTABEL, &c. / By S. T. Coleridge, Esq. / Second Edition. / LONDON: / Printed For John Murray, Albemarle-Street, / By William Bulmer and Co.

Cleveland-Row, / St. James's. / 1816. / [8{o}.

_Collation._--_Vide_ No. XVI.

[The half-t.i.tle, CHRISTABEL, is in Gothic Character.]

XVIII

CHRISTABEL, &c. / By / S. T. Coleridge, Esq. / Third Edition. / LONDON: / Printed For John Murray, Albemarle-Street, / By William Bulmer and Co.

Cleveland-Row, / St. James's. / 1816. / [8{o}.

_Collation._--_Vide_ No. XVI.

[The half-t.i.tle, CHRISTABEL, is in Gothic Character.]