FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164  
165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   >>   >|  
ey says of it that "it is a thing deader than a door-nail,--which is waiting vainly, and for thousands of years is doomed to wait, for its sister volume, namely, Volume Second." It must be ever regretted, that of the poet's later life, of which he knew so much, he wrote nothing; but the world was justified in expecting in the details of his earlier pilgrimage something which it did not get. [F] Mrs. Gillman gave me also the following sonnet. I believe it never to have been published; but although she requested I "would not have copies of it made to give away," I presume the prohibition cannot now be binding, after a lapse of thirty years since I received it. The poet, he who wrote the sonnet, and the admirable woman to whom it was addressed, have long since met. "SONNET ON THE LATE SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. "And thou art gone, most loved, most honored friend! No, never more thy gentle voice shall blend With air of Earth its pure, ideal tones,-- Binding in one, as with harmonious zones, The heart and intellect. And I no more Shall with thee gaze on that unfathomed deep, The Human Soul: as when, pushed off the shore, Thy mystic bark would through the darkness sweep, Itself the while so bright! For oft we seemed As on some starless sea,--all dark above, All dark below,--yet, onward as we drove, To plough up light that ever round us streamed But he who mourns is not as one bereft Of all he loved: thy living Truths are left. "WASHINGTON ALLSTON. "_Cambridge Port, Massachusetts, America._ "For my _still_ dear friend, Mrs. Gillman, of the Grove, Highgate." [G] Madame de Stael is reported to have said that Coleridge was "rich in a monologue, but poor in a dialogue." [H] It may not be forgotten that the Rev. Edward Irving, in dedicating to Coleridge one of his books, acknowledges obligations to the venerable sage for many valuable teachings, "as a spiritual man and as a Christian pastor": lessons derived from his "_conversations_" concerning the revelations of the Christian faith,--"helps in the way of truth,"--"from listening to his discourses." Coleridge has said, "he never found the smallest hitch or impediment in the fullest utterance of his most subtile fancies by word of mouth." [I] Their friendship lasted for years, and was full of kindness on the part of the philosopher, and of reverential respect on that of Irving, who, foll
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164  
165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Coleridge
 

Gillman

 

Christian

 

sonnet

 

friend

 
Irving
 
Truths
 

living

 

bereft

 
streamed

mourns

 

Massachusetts

 
America
 

Cambridge

 

lasted

 
WASHINGTON
 

ALLSTON

 
friendship
 

starless

 
reverential

respect

 

bright

 

philosopher

 
plough
 
kindness
 

onward

 

Highgate

 
teachings
 
spiritual
 

smallest


valuable

 
obligations
 

venerable

 

pastor

 
revelations
 

listening

 

conversations

 

lessons

 

derived

 
discourses

Itself

 
acknowledges
 

fancies

 

reported

 

subtile

 

utterance

 

fullest

 

Madame

 

monologue

 
Edward