The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition). Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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And therefore love I you, sweet Genevieve!
1791
ON RECEIVING AN ACCOUNT THAT HIS ONLY SISTER’S DEATH WAS INEVITABLE
The tear which mourn’d a brother’s fate scarce dry —
Pain after pain, and woe succeeding woe —
Is my heart destin’d for another blow?
O my sweet sister! and must thou too die?
Ah! how has Disappointment pour’d the tear 5
O’er infant Hope destroy’d by early frost!
How are ye gone, whom most my soul held dear!
Scarce had I lov’d you ere I mourn’d you lost;
Say, is this hollow eye, this heartless pain,
Fated to rove thro’ Life’s wide cheerless plain — 10
Nor father, brother, sister meet its ken —
My woes, my joys unshared! Ah! long ere then
On me thy icy dart, stern Death, be prov’d; —
Better to die, than live and not be lov’d!
ON SEEING A YOUTH AFFECTIONATELY WELCOMED BY A SISTER
I too a sister had! too cruel Death!
How sad Remembrance bids my bosom heave!
Tranquil her soul, as sleeping Infant’s breath;
Meek were her manners as a vernal Eve.
Knowledge, that frequent lifts the bloated mind, 5
Gave her the treasure of a lowly breast,
And Wit to venom’d Malice oft assign’d,
Dwelt in her bosom in a Turtle’s nest.
Cease, busy Memory! cease to urge the dart;
Nor on my soul her love to me impress! 10
For oh I mourn in anguish — and my heart
Feels the keen pang, th’ unutterable distress.
Yet wherefore grieve I that her sorrows cease,
For Life was misery, and the Grave is Peace!
A MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM
If Pegasus will let thee only ride him,
Spurning my clumsy efforts to o’erstride him,
Some fresh expedient the Muse will try,
And walk on stilts, although she cannot fly.
TO THE REV. GEORGE COLERIDGE
DEAR BROTHER,
I have often been surprised that Mathematics, the quintessence
of Truth, should have found admirers so few and so languid.
Frequent consideration and minute scrutiny have at length
unravelled the cause; viz. that though Reason is feasted, Imagination is starved; whilst Reason is luxuriating in its proper Paradise, Imagination is wearily travelling on a dreary desert. To assist Reason by the stimulus of Imagination is the design of the following production. In the execution of it much may be objectionable. The verse (particularly in the introduction of the ode) may be accused of unwarrantable liberties, but they are liberties equally homogeneal with the exactness of Mathematical disquisition, and the boldness of Pindaric daring. I have three strong champions to defend me against the attacks of Criticism: the Novelty, the Difficulty, and the Utility of the work. I may justly plume myself that I first have drawn the nymph Mathesis from the visionary caves of abstracted idea, and caused her to unite with Harmony. The first-born of this Union I now present to you; with interested motives indeed — as I expect to receive in return the more valuable offspring of your Muse. Thine ever, S. T. C.
CHRIST’S HOSPITAL
March 31, 1791
This is now — this was erst,
Proposition the first — and Problem the first.
I
On a given finite line
Which must no way incline;
To describe an equi —
— lateral Tri —
— A, N, G, L, E. 5
Now let A. B.
Be the given line
Which must no way incline;
The great Mathematician
Makes this Requisition, 10
That we describe an Equi —
— lateral Tri —
— angle on it:
Aid us, Reason — aid us, Wit!
II
From the centre A. at the distance A. B. 15
Describe the circle B. C. D.
At the distance B. A. from B. the centre
The round A. C. E. to describe boldly venture.
(Third postulate see.)
And from the point C. 20
In which the circles make a pother
Cutting and slashing one another,
Bid the straight lines a journeying go.
C. A. C. B. those lines will show.
To the points, which by A. B. are reckon’d, 25
And postulate the second
For Authority ye know.
A. B. C.
Triumphant shall be
An Equilateral Triangle, 30
Not Peter Pindar carp, nor Zoilus can wrangle.
III
Because the point A. is the centre
Of the circular B. C. D.
And because the point B. is the centre
Of the circular A. C. E. 35
A. C. to A. B. and B. C. to B. A.
Harmoniously equal for ever must stay;
Then C. A. and B. C.
Both extend the kind hand
To the basis, A. B. 40
Unambitiously join’d in Equality’s Band.
But to the same powers, when two powers are equal,
My mind forbodes the sequel;
My mind does some celestial impulse teach,
And equalises each to each. 45
Thus C. A. with B. C. strikes the same sure alliance,
That C. A. and B. C. had with A. B. before;
And in mutual affiance
None attempting to soar
Above another, 50
The unanimous three
C. A. and B. C. and A. B.
All are equal, each to his brother,
Preserving the balance of power so true:
Ah! the like would the proud Autocratrix do! 55
At taxes impending not Britain would tremble,
Nor Prussia struggle her fear to dissemble;