by Coleridge · Cluster: Nature · Book of Nature · Natural Order
Abstract
A hexameter hymn after Stolberg hailing Earth as great mother, nurse, and bride of Heaven, a cosmic celebration of fertility, nature and the poet’s gratitude.
Connections
Topoi: Book of Nature Archetypes: Great Mother Motifs: Nature, Stars, Sea Themes & Concepts: Wonder and Gratitude, Sublime Forms & Genres: Hymn, Hexameter Verse, Translation
Testo integrale / Full text
IMITATED FROM STOLBERG’S HYMNE AN DIE ERDE
HEXAMETERS
Earth! thou mother of numberless children, the nurse and the
mother,
Hail! O Goddess, thrice hail! Blest be thou! and, blessing, I hymn
thee!
Forth, ye sweet sounds! from my harp, and my voice shall float on
your surges —
Soar thou aloft, O my soul! and bear up my song on thy pinions.
Travelling the vale with mine eyes — green meadows and lake with
green island, 5
Dark in its basin of rock, and the bare stream flowing in
brightness,
Thrilled with thy beauty and love in the wooded slope of the
mountain,
Here, great mother, I lie, thy child, with his head on thy bosom!
Playful the spirits of noon, that rushing soft through thy tresses,
Green-haired goddess! refresh me; and hark! as they hurry or
linger, 10
Fill the pause of my harp, or sustain it with musical murmurs.
Into my being thou murmurest joy, and tenderest sadness
Shedd’st thou, like dew, on my heart, till the joy and the
heavenly sadness
Pour themselves forth from my heart in tears, and the hymn of
thanksgiving.
Earth! thou mother of numberless children, the nurse and the
mother, 15
Sister thou of the stars, and beloved by the Sun, the rejoicer!
Guardian and friend of the moon, O Earth, whom the comets forget
not,
Yea, in the measureless distance wheel round and again they behold
thee!
Fadeless and young (and what if the latest birth of creation?)
Bride and consort of Heaven, that looks down upon thee enamoured! 20
Say, mysterious Earth! O say, great mother and goddess,
Was it not well with thee then, when first thy lap was ungirdled,
Thy lap to the genial Heaven, the day that he wooed thee and won
thee!
Fair was thy blush, the fairest and first of the blushes of
morning!
Deep was the shudder, O Earth! the throe of thy self-retention: 25
Inly thou strovest to flee, and didst seek thyself at thy centre!
Mightier far was the joy of thy sudden resilience; and forthwith
Myriad myriads of lives teemed forth from the mighty embracement.
Thousand-fold tribes of dwellers, impelled by thousand-fold
instincts,
Filled, as a dream, the wide waters; the rivers sang on their
channels; 30
Laughed on their shores the hoarse seas; the yearning ocean
swelled upward;
Young life lowed through the meadows, the woods, and the echoing
mountains,
Wandered bleating in valleys, and warbled on blossoming branches.
1799.