The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol 1 and 2

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

To Earl Stanhope

A man beloved of Science and of Freedom, these Poems are
respectfully inscribed by
The Author.

[In a letter to Miss Cruikshank (? 1807) (Early Recollections, 1837, i. 201), Coleridge maintains that the 'Sonnet to Earl Stanhope', which was published in Poems, 1796 (vide ante, pp. [89, 90]), 'was inserted by the fool of a publisher [Cottle prints 'inserted by Biggs, the fool of a printer'] in order, forsooth, that he might send the book and a letter to Earl Stanhope; who (to prove that he is not mad in all things) treated both book and letter with silent contempt.' In a note Cottle denies this statement, and maintains that the 'book (handsomely bound) and the letter were sent to Lord S. by Mr. C. himself'. It is possible that before the book was published Coleridge had repented of Sonnet, Dedication, and Letter, and that the 'handsomely bound' volume was sent by Cottle and not by Coleridge, but the 'Dedication' is in his own handwriting and proves that he was, in the first instance at least, particeps criminis. See Note by J. D. Campbell, P. W., 1893, pp. 575, 576.]

CONTENTS

PAGE
Monody to Chatterton	1
To the Rev. W. J. H.	12
Songs of the Pixies	15
Lines on the Man of Ross	26
Lines to a beautiful Spring	28
Epitaph on an Infant	31
Lines on a Friend	32
To a Young Lady with a Poem	36
Absence, a Farewell Ode	40
Effusion 1, to Bowles	45
Effusion 2, to Burke	46
Effusion 3, to Mercy	47
Effusion 4, to Priestley	48
Effusion 5, to Erskine	49
Effusion 6, to Sheridan	50
Effusion 7, to Siddons [signed 'C. L.']	51
Effusion 8, to Kosciusco	52
Effusion 9, to Fayette	53
Effusion 10, to Earl Stanhope	54
Effusion 11 ['Was it some sweet device'—'C. L.']	55
Effusion 12 ['Methinks how dainty sweet'—'C. L.']	56
Effusion 13, written at Midnight ['C. L.']	57
Effusion 14	59
Effusion 15	60
Effusion 16, to an Old Man	61
Effusion 17, to Genevieve	62
Effusion 18, to the Autumnal Moon	63
Effusion 19, to my own heart	64
Effusion 20, to Schiller	65
Effusion 21, on Brockley Coomb	66
[Effusion 22,] To a Friend with an unfinished Poem	68
Effusion 23, to the Nightingale	71
Effusion 24, in the manner of Spencer	73
Effusion 25, to Domestic Peace	77
Effusion 26, on a Kiss	78
Effusion 27	80
Effusion 28	82
Effusion 29, Imitated from Ossian	84
Effusion 30, Complaint of Ninathoma	86
Effusion 31, from the Welsh	88
Effusion 32, The Sigh	89
Effusion 33, to a Young Ass	91
Effusion 34, to an Infant	94
Effusion 35, written at Clevedon	96
Effusion 36, written in Early Youth	101
Epistle 1, written at Shurton Bars	111
Epistle 2, to a Friend in answer to a Melancholy Letter	119
Epistle 3, written after a Walk	122
Epistle 4, to the Author of Poems published in Bristol	125
Epistle 5, from a Young Lady	129
Religious Musings	139

III

[A Sheet Of Sonnets.]

Collation.—No title; Introduction, pp. [1]-2; Text (of Sonnets Nos. i-xxviii), pp. 3-16. Signatures A. B. B². [1796.]

[8^o.

[There is no imprint. In a letter to John Thelwall, dated December 17, 1796 (Letters of S. T. C., 1895, i, 206), Coleridge writes, 'I have sent you . . . Item, a sheet of sonnets collected by me, for the use of a few friends, who payed the printing.' The 'sheet' is bound up with a copy of 'Sonnets and Other poems, by The Rev. W. L. Bowles A. M. Bath, printed by R. Cruttwell: and sold by C. Dilly, Poultry, London, mdccxcvi. Fourth Edition,' which was presented to Mrs. Thelwall, Dec. 18, 1796. At the end of the 'Sonnets' a printed slip (probably a cutting from a newspaper) is inserted, which contains the lines 'To a Friend who had declared his intention of Writing no more Poetry' (vide ante, pp. [158, 159]). This volume is now in the Dyce Collection, which forms part of the Victoria and Albert Museum. See P. and D. W., 1877, ii, pp. 375-9, and P. W., 1893, p. 544.]