by Coleridge · Cluster: Nationalism and Patriotism · Democracy · Liberty Political Freedom
Abstract
Prose translation and verse variants attached to ‘The Destiny of Nations’, including Death welcomed by Liberty, the Joan of Arc visions, allegorical war-figures and authorial notes; themes of death, freedom, war, and allegory.
Connections
Archetypes: Hero Motifs: Death Themes & Concepts: Liberty Political Freedom, War and its Cost, Providence Forms & Genres: Fragment, Allegory
Testo integrale / Full text
Leaving the gates of Darkness, O Death! hasten thou to a Race yoked to
Misery! Thou wilt not be received with lacerations of Cheeks, nor with
funereal ululation, but with circling Dances and the joy of Songs. Thou
art terrible indeed, yet thou dwellest with LIBERTY, stern GENIUS! Borne
on thy dark pinions over the swelling of Ocean they return to their
native country. There by the side of fountains beneath Citron groves,
the Lovers tell to their Beloved, what horrors, being Men, they had
endured from Men.
¿ before ¶ ought to have been made long; ´¿ÑÂ QÀM¶ is
an Amphimacer not (as the metre here requires) a Dactyl. S.
T. C.
more naturally interpreted with a very false and dangerous one. But I
was at that time one of the Mongrels, the Josephidites [Josephides =
the Son of Joseph], a proper name of distinction from those who believe
in, as well as believe Christ the only begotten Son of the Living God
before all Time. MS. Note by S. T. C.
Beneath whose shadowy banners wide unfurl’d
Justice leads forth her tyrant-quelling hosts.
4{o}, Sibylline Leaves.
The Harp which hanging high between the shields
Of Brutus and Leonidas oft gives
A fitful music to the breezy touch
Of patriot spirits that demand their fame.
4{o}.
But chiefly this with holiest habitude
Of constant Faith, him First, him Last to view
4{o}.
Things from their shadows. Know thyself my Soul!
Confirm’d thy strength, thy pinions fledged for flight
Bursting this shell and leaving next thy nest
Soon upward soaring shalt thou fix intense
Thine eaglet eye on Heaven’s Eternal Sun!
4{o}.
The substance from its shadow — Earth’s broad shade
Revealing by Eclipse, the Eternal Sun.
Sibylline Leaves.
[The text of lines 23-6 is given in the Errata p. [lxii].]
Speeds from the mother of Death his destin’d way
To snatch the murderer from his secret cell.
4{o}.
[Between lines 99-100]
(Where live the innocent as far from cares
As from the storms and overwhelming waves
Dark tumbling on the surface of the deep).
4{o}, Sibylline Leaves, 1828, 1829.
These lines form part of an addition (lines 111-21) which dates from
1834.
Sibylline Leaves, 1828, or 1829. For lines 113-15 vide ante, variant
of line 99 of the text.
To rear some realm with patient discipline,
Aye bidding PAIN, dark ERROR’S uncouth child,
Blameless Parenticide! his snakey scourge 125
Lift fierce against his Mother! Thus they make
Of transient Evil ever-during Good
Themselves probationary, and denied
Confess’d to view by preternatural deed
To o’erwhelm the will, save on some fated day 130
Headstrong, or with petition’d might from God.
And such perhaps the guardian Power whose ken
Still dwelt on France. He from the invisible World
Burst on the MAIDEN’S eye, impregning Air
With Voices and strange Shapes, illusions apt 135
Shadowy of Truth. [And first a landscape rose
More wild and waste and desolate, than where
The white bear drifting on a field of ice
Howls to her sunder’d cubs with piteous rage
And savage agony.] Mid the drear scene 140
A craggy mass uprear’d its misty brow,
Untouch’d by breath of Spring, unwont to know
Red Summer’s influence, or the chearful face
Of Autumn; yet its fragments many and huge
Astounded ocean with the dreadful dance 145
Of whirlpools numberless, absorbing oft
The blameless fisher at his perilous toil.
4{o}.
Note — Lines 148-223 of the Second Book of Joan of Arc are by
Southey. Coleridge’s unpublished poem of 1796 (The Visions of the Maid
of Orleans) begins at line 127 of the text, ending at line 277. The
remaining portion of the Destiny of Nations is taken from lines
contributed to the Second Book. Lines 136-40 of variant 130 foll. form
the concluding fragment of the Destiny of Nations. Lines 141-3 of the
variant are by Southey. (See his Preface to Joan of Arc, 1796, p. vi.)
The remaining lines of the variant were never reprinted.
[xii]).
Between lines 314 and 315 of the text, the text of the original version
(after line 259 of Joan of Arc, Book II) continues: —
‘These are the fiends that o’er thy native land 260
Spread Guilt and Horror. Maid belov’d of Heaven!
Dar’st thou inspir’d by the holy flame of Love
Encounter such fell shapes, nor fear to meet
Their wrath, their wiles? O Maiden dar’st thou die?’
‘Father of Heaven: I will not fear.’ she said, 265
‘My arm is weak, but mighty is thy sword.’
She spake and as she spake the trump was heard
That echoed ominous o’er the streets of Rome,
When the first Caesar totter’d o’er the grave
By Freedom delv’d: the Trump, whose chilling blast 270
On Marathon and on Plataea’s plain
Scatter’d the Persian. — From his obscure haunt, &c.
[Lines 267-72, She spake … the Persian, are claimed by Southey.]
Between lines 320 and 321 of the text, the text of Joan of Arc, Book
II, continues: —
‘Lo she goes!
To Orleans lo! she goes — the mission’d Maid!
The Victor Hosts wither beneath her arm!
And what are Crecy, Poictiers, Azincour 280
But noisy echoes in the ear of Pride?’
Ambition heard and startled on his throne;
But strait a smile of savage joy illum’d
His grisly features, like the sheety Burst
Of Lightning o’er the awaken’d midnight clouds 285
Wide flash’d. [For lo! a flaming pile reflects
Its red light fierce and gloomy on the face
Of SUPERSTITION and her goblin Son
Loud-laughing CRUELTY, who to the stake
A female fix’d, of bold and beauteous mien, 290
Her snow-white Limbs by iron fetters bruis’d
Her breast expos’d.] JOAN saw, she saw and knew
Her perfect image. Nature thro’ her frame
One pang shot shiv’ring; but, that frail pang soon
Dismiss’d, ‘Even so, &c.
4{o}.
[The passage included in brackets was claimed by Southey.]
But lo! no more was seen the ice-pil’d mount
And meteor-lighted dome. — An Isle appear’d
4{o}.
The Sea meantime his Billows darkest roll’d,
And each stain’d wave dash’d on the shore a corse.
4{o}.
His hideous features blended with the mist,
The long black locks of SLAUGHTER. PEACE beheld
And o’er the plain
4{o}.
1817. (Errata: for ‘blended’, &c., read ‘looming on the mist’. S.
L., p. [xii].)
The name of JUSTICE written on thy brow
Resplendent shone
4{o}, S. L. 1817.
(The reading of the text is given as an emendation in the Errata,
Sibylline Leaves, 1817, p. [xii].)
Between lines 421 and 423 of the text, the text of Joan of Arc, Book
II, inserts: —
A Vapor rose, pierc’d by the MAIDEN’S eye.
Guiding its course OPPRESSION sate within,
With terror pale and rage, yet laugh’d at times
Musing on Vengeance: trembled in his hand
A Sceptre fiercely-grasp’d. O’er Ocean westward
The Vapor sail’d
4{o}.
These images imageless, these Small-Capitals
constituting themselves Personifications, I despised even at
that time; but was forced to introduce them, to preserve the
connection with the machinery of the Poem, previously adopted
by Southey. S. T. C.
After 429 of the text, the text of Joan of Arc inserts: —
ENVY sate
guiding — ENVY, hag-abhorr’d!
Like JUSTICE mask’d, and doom’d to aid the fight 410
Victorious ‘gainst oppression. Hush’d awhile
4{o}.
[These lines were assigned by Coleridge to Southey.]
Shriek’d AMBITION’S ghastly throng
And with them those the locust Fiends that crawl’d
4{o}.
— if Locusts how could they shriek? I must have
caught the contagion of unthinkingness. S. T. C.
4{o}.
For lines 470-74 vide ante var. of lines 130 foll.