[155:2] First published in 1797: included in 1803, _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817, 1828, and 1834.
LINENOTES:
t.i.tle] To C. Lloyd on his proposing to domesticate, &c. 1797: To a Friend, &c. 1803. "Composed in 1796" was added in S. L.
[8] those still] stilly 1797: stillest 1803.
[11] cliff] clift S. L., 1828, 1829.
[16] How heavenly sweet 1797, 1803.
[42] youth] Lloyd 1797: Charles 1803.
[46] lone] low 1797, 1803.
[60] And mad oppression"s thunder-clasping rage 1797, 1803.
[69] We"ll laugh at wealth, and learn to laugh at fame 1797, 1803.
[71] In 1803 the poem ended with line 71. In the Sibylline Leaves, 1829, the last five lines were replaced.
[72] hath drunk] has drank 1797: hath drank S. L., 1828, 1829.
[75] She whom I love, shall love thee. Honour"d youth 1797, S. L., 1817, 1828, 1829. The change of punctuation dates from 1834.
ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG MAN OF FORTUNE[157:1]
[C. LLOYD]
WHO ABANDONED HIMSELF TO AN INDOLENT AND CAUSELESS MELANCHOLY
Hence that fantastic wantonness of woe, O Youth to partial Fortune vainly dear!
To plunder"d Want"s half-shelter"d hovel go, Go, and some hunger-bitten infant hear Moan haply in a dying mother"s ear: 5 Or when the cold and dismal fog-damps brood O"er the rank church-yard with sear elm-leaves strew"d, Pace round some widow"s grave, whose dearer part Was slaughter"d, where o"er his uncoffin"d limbs The flocking flesh-birds scream"d! Then, while thy heart 10 Groans, and thine eye a fiercer sorrow dims, Know (and the truth shall kindle thy young mind) What Nature makes thee mourn, she bids thee heal!
O abject! if, to sickly dreams resign"d, All effortless thou leave Life"s commonweal 15 A prey to Tyrants, Murderers of Mankind.
1796.
FOOTNOTES:
[157:1] First published in the _Cambridge Intelligencer_, December 17, 1796: included in the Quarto Edition of the _Ode on the Departing Year_, 1796, in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1828, 1829, and 1834. The lines were sent in a letter to John Thelwall, dated December 17, 1796 (_Letters of S. T.
C._, 1895, i. 207, 208).
LINENOTES:
t.i.tle] Lines, &c., C. I.: To a Young Man who abandoned himself to a causeless and indolent melancholy MS. Letter, 1796.
[6-7] These lines were omitted in the MS. Letter and 4{o} 1796, but were replaced in Sibylline Leaves, 1817.
[8] Or seek some widow"s MS. Letter, Dec. 17, 1796.
[11] eye] eyes MS. Letter, Dec. 9, 1796, C. I.
[15-16]
earth"s common weal A prey to the thron"d Murderess of Mankind.
MS. Letter, 1796.
All effortless thou leave Earth"s commonweal A prey to the thron"d Murderers of Mankind.
C. I., 1796, 4{o}.
TO A FRIEND[158:1]
[CHARLES LAMB]
WHO HAD DECLARED HIS INTENTION OF WRITING NO MORE POETRY
Dear Charles! whilst yet thou wert a babe, I ween That Genius plung"d thee in that wizard fount Hight Castalie: and (sureties of thy faith) That Pity and Simplicity stood by, And promis"d for thee, that thou shouldst renounce 5 The world"s low cares and lying vanities, Steadfast and rooted in the heavenly Muse, And wash"d and sanctified to Poesy.
Yes--thou wert plung"d, but with forgetful hand Held, as by Thetis erst her warrior son: 10 And with those recreant unbaptized heels Thou"rt flying from thy bounden ministeries-- So sore it seems and burthensome a task To weave unwithering flowers! But take thou heed: For thou art vulnerable, wild-eyed boy, 15 And I have arrows[159:1] mystically dipped Such as may stop thy speed. Is thy Burns dead?
And shall he die unwept, and sink to earth "Without the meed of one melodious tear"?
Thy Burns, and Nature"s own beloved bard, 20 Who to the "Ill.u.s.trious[159:2] of his native Land So properly did look for patronage."
Ghost of Maecenas! hide thy blushing face!
They s.n.a.t.c.h"d him from the sickle and the plough-- To gauge ale-firkins.
Oh! for shame return! 25 On a bleak rock, midway the Aonian mount, There stands a lone and melancholy tree, Whose aged branches to the midnight blast Make solemn music: pluck its darkest bough, Ere yet the unwholesome night-dew be exhaled, 30 And weeping wreath it round thy Poet"s tomb.
Then in the outskirts, where pollutions grow, Pick the rank henbane and the dusky flowers Of night-shade, or its red and tempting fruit, These with stopped nostril and glove-guarded hand 35 Knit in nice intertexture, so to twine, The ill.u.s.trious brow of Scotch n.o.bility!
1796.
FOOTNOTES:
[158:1] First published in a Bristol newspaper in aid of a subscription for the family of Robert Burns (the cutting is bound up with the copy of _Selection of Sonnets_ (_S. S._) in the Forster Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum): reprinted in the _Annual Anthology_, 1800: included in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817, 1828, 1829, and 1834.
[159:1]