Chapter 279 of 399 · 620 words · ~3 min read

Part iii

._

Hope against hope, and ask till ye receive.[496-2]

_The World before the Flood. Canto v._

Joys too exquisite to last, And yet _more_ exquisite when past.

_The Little Cloud._

Bliss in possession will not last; Remembered joys are never past; At once the fountain, stream, and sea, They were, they are, they yet shall be.

_The Little Cloud._

Friend after friend departs; Who hath not lost a friend? There is no union here of hearts That finds not here an end.

_Friends._

Nor sink those stars in empty night: They hide themselves in heaven's own light.

_Friends._

'T is not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die.

_The Issues of Life and Death._

Beyond this vale of tears There is a life above, Unmeasured by the flight of years; And all that life is love.

_The Issues of Life and Death._

Night is the time to weep, To wet with unseen tears Those graves of memory where sleep The joys of other years.

_The Issues of Life and Death._

Who that hath ever been Could bear to be no more? Yet who would tread again the scene He trod through life before?

_The Falling Leaf._

Here in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam, Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day's march nearer home.

_At Home in Heaven._

If God hath made this world so fair, Where sin and death abound, How beautiful beyond compare Will paradise be found!

_The Earth full of God's Goodness._

Return unto thy rest, my soul, From all the wanderings of thy thought, From sickness unto death made whole, Safe through a thousand perils brought.

_Rest for the Soul._

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed,-- The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast.

_What is Prayer?_

Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, The upward glancing of an eye When none but God is near.

_What is Prayer?_

FOOTNOTES:

[496-1] Thnêskein mê lege tous agathous (Say not that the good die).--CALLIMACHUS: _Epigram x._

[496-2] See Barbauld, page 433.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 1772-1834.

He holds him with his glittering eye, And listens like a three years' child.[498-1]

_The Ancient Mariner. Part i ._

Red as a rose is she.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part i ._

We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part ii ._

As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part ii ._

Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part ii ._

Without a breeze, without a tide, She steadies with upright keel.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part iii ._

The nightmare Life-in-Death was she.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part iii ._

The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: At one stride comes the dark; With far-heard whisper o'er the sea, Off shot the spectre-bark.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part iii ._

And thou art long and lank and brown, As is the ribbed sea-sand.[498-2]

_The Ancient Mariner. Part iv ._

Alone, alone,--all, all alone; Alone on a wide, wide sea.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part iv ._

The moving moon went up the sky, And nowhere did abide; Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part iv ._

A spring of love gush'd from my heart, And I bless'd them unaware.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part iv ._

Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole.

_The Ancient Mariner. Part v ._

A noise like of a hidden brook In the leafy month of June, That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tune.

_The Ancient Mariner.