XXXVII. The Revived Ballad (Percy to Coleridge)
(a) Percy's imitation of equivalence and extension of scheme (Sir Cawline):
Then she | held forth | her lil|y-white hand
Towards | that knight | so free;
He gave | to it | one gen|til kiss,
His heart | was brought | from bale | to bliss,
The tears | sterte from | his ee.
(Not bad; might have been improved by "And the tears|.")
(b) Goldsmith (regularised sing-song):
Turn An|geli|na, ev|er dear,
My charm|er, turn | to see
Thy own, | thy long-|lost Ed|win here
Restored | to love | and thee!
(c) Southey (quite sound in principle, and not bad in effect; but a little more poetic powder wanted):
They laid | her where | these four | roads meet
Here in | this ver|y place—
The earth | upon | her corpse | was pressed,
This post | was driv|en into | her breast,
And a stone | is on | her face.
(d) Coleridge (the real thing in simpler and more complex form):
It is | an an|cient ma|riner,
And he stop|peth one | of three—
"By thy long | grey beard | and glit|tering eye,
Now where|fore stop'st | thou me?"
. . . . . . .
Her lips | were red, | her looks | were free,
Her locks | were yel|low as gold;
Her skin | was as white | as lep|rosy—
The night|mare Life-|in-Death | was she,
Who thicks | man's blood | with cold.
. . . . . . .
We list|ened and | looked side|ways up!
Fear at | my heart, | as at | a cup,
My life-|blood seemed | to sip!
The stars | were dim | and thick | the night,
The steers|man's face | by his lamp | gleamed white;
From the sails | the dew | did drip—
Till clomb | above | the east|ern bar
The horn|èd moon, | with one | bright star
Within | the neth|er tip.
(The presence and absence of anapæstic substitution here, with its effect in each case, should be carefully studied.)