W. L. BOWLES
——I yet remain
To mourn the hours of youth (yet mourn in vain)
That fled neglected: wisely thou hast trod
The better path—and that high meed which God
Assign'd to virtue, tow'ring from the dust, 5
Shall wait thy rising, Spirit pure and just!
O God! how sweet it were to think, that all
Who silent mourn around this gloomy ball
Might hear the voice of joy;—but 'tis the will
Of man's great Author, that thro' good and ill 10
Calm he should hold his course, and so sustain
His varied lot of pleasure, toil and pain!
1793
['These lines,' which 'were found in Mr. Coleridge's handwriting in one of the Prayer Books in the Chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge,' were first published in Lit. Rem., 1836, i. 34. They were first collected in P. W., 1885, i. 127. The first six lines are (see P. W., 1893, p. 474) taken from Bowles's elegy 'On the Death of Henry Headley'. J. D. Campbell surmised that the last six lines 'practically belonged to the same poem', but of this there is no evidence. The note of the elegy is a lament for the 'untimely sorrow' which had befallen an innocent sufferer, and the additional lines, which Coleridge composed or quoted, moralized the theme.
Note. Bowles wrote, I, alas, remain (l. 1), and 'Ordain'd for virtue' (l. 5).]