by Coleridge · Cluster: Grief and Loss · Elegy · Clothing and Costume
Abstract
A blank-verse inscription after Akenside: the traveller is bidden to mourn at the grave of Edmund the learned shepherd, who died of ill-requited love, while faithless Matilda is avenged by Heaven; rural elegy on love, death and pride.
Connections
Motifs: Grave Themes & Concepts: Unrequited Frustrated Love, Pride, Grief and Loss, Providence Forms & Genres: Elegy, Blank Verse Settings: Pastoral Countryside
Testo integrale / Full text
BLANK VERSE INSCRIPTIONS
No. III.
[For Elegy Imitated from one of Akenside’s ‘Blank Verse Inscriptions’,
vide ante, p. 69.]
Whoe’er thou art whose path in Summer lies
Through yonder village, turn thee where the Grove
Of branching oaks a rural palace old
Embosoms — there dwells Albert, generous lord
Of all the harvest round. And onward thence 5
A low plain chapel fronts the morning light
Fast by a silent rivulet. Humbly walk,
O stranger, o’er the consecrated ground;
And on that verdant Hillock, which thou seest
Beset with osiers, let thy pious hand 10
Sprinkle fresh water from the brook, and strew
Sweet-smelling flowers — for there doth Edmund rest,
The learned shepherd; for each rural art
Famed, and for songs harmonious, and the woes
Of ill-requited love. The faithless pride 15
Of fair Matilda sank him to the grave
In manhood’s prime. But soon did righteous Heaven
With tears, with sharp remorse, and pining care
Avenge her falsehood. Nor could all the gold
And nuptial pomp, which lured her plighted faith 20
From Edmund to a loftier husband’s home,
Relieve her breaking heart, or turn aside
The strokes of death. Go, traveller, relate
The mournful story. Haply some fair maid
May hold it in remembrance, and be taught 25
That riches cannot pay for truth or love.