by Coleridge · Cluster: Faith · Providence · Divine Love
Abstract
Prose note and textual apparatus to the Ode to the Departing Year, condemning the Empress of Russia’s atrocities and Britain’s complicity in war, slavery and famine, citing the prophet Nahum.
Connections
Archetypes: Prophet Themes & Concepts: War and its Cost, Power and Corruption, Providence, Social Injustice Historical References: Bible
Testo integrale / Full text
for no other crime than that their garrison had defended the place with perseverance and bravery. Why should I recal the poisoning of her husband, her iniquities in Poland, or her late unmotived attack on Persia, the desolating ambition of her public life, or the libidinous excesses of her private hours! I have no wish to qualify myself for the office of Historiographer to the King of Hell — ! December, 23, 1796. 4{o}. as in a vision; and concludes with introducing the Planetary Angel of the Earth preparing to address the Supreme Being. 1803. 4{o}. Downfall of this Country. 1803. peculiar advantages, which this country has enjoyed, passes in rapid transition to the uses, which we have made of these advantages. We have been preserved by our insular situation, from suffering the actual horrors of War ourselves, and we have shewn our gratitude to Providence for this immunity by our eagerness to spread those horrors over nations less happily situated. In the midst of plenty and safety we have raised or joined the yell for famine and blood. Of the one hundred and seven last years, fifty have been years of War. Such wickedness cannot pass unpunished. We have been proud and confident in our alliances and our fleets — but God has prepared the canker-worm, and will smite the gourds of our pride. ‘Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the Sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength and it was infinite: Put and Lubim were her helpers. Yet she was carried away, she went into captivity: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. Thou also shalt be drunken: all thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs; if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven. Thy crowned are as the locusts; and thy captains as the great grasshoppers which camp in the hedges in the cool-day; but when the Sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all, that hear the report of thee, shall clap hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?’ Nahum, chap. iii. 4{o}, 1797, 1803. was written many years before the abolition of the Slave Trade by the British Legislature, likewise before the invasion of Switzerland by the French Republic, which occasioned the Ode that follows [France: an Ode. First published as The Recantation: an Ode], a kind of Palinodia.’ MS. Note by S. T. C. Title] Ode for the last day of the Year 1796, C. I.: Ode on the Departing Year 4{o}, 1797, 1803, S. L., 1817, 1828, 1829. Motto] 3-5 All editions (4{o} to 1834) read Æ·¼w¿¹Â for ´ÅÃÆÁ¿¹¼w¿¹Â, and ³±½ ³’ for ³±½; and all before 1834 ¼·½ for ¼’ ½. I] Strophe I C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. When lo! far onwards waving on the wind I saw the skirts of the DEPARTING YEAR. C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. forebade 4{o}, 1797, 1803. II] Strophe II C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. From Poverty’s heart-wasting languish From Distemper’s midnight anguish C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. Seiz’d in sore travail and portentous birth (Her eyeballs flashing a pernicious glare) Sick Nature struggles! Hark! her pangs increase! Her groans are horrible! but O! most fair The promis’d Twins she bears — Equality and Peace! C. I., 4{o}. III] Epode C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. [Between 51 and 52] Whose shrieks, whose screams were vain to stir Loud-laughing, red-eyed Massacre C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. [After 61] When shall sceptred SLAUGHTER cease? A while he crouch’d, O Victor France! Beneath the lightning of thy lance; With treacherous dalliance courting PEACE — But soon upstarting from his coward trance The boastful bloody Son of Pride betray’d His ancient hatred of the dove-eyed Maid. A cloud, O Freedom! cross’d thy orb of Light, And sure he deem’d that orb was set in night: For still does MADNESS roam on GUILT’S bleak dizzy height! C. I. When shall sceptred, &c.
With treacherous dalliance wooing Peace. But soon up-springing from his dastard trance The boastful bloody Son of Pride betray’d His hatred of the blest and blessing Maid. One cloud, O Freedom! cross’d thy orb of Light, And sure he deem’d that orb was quench’d in night: For still, &c. 4{o}. To juggle this easily-juggled people into better humour with the supplies (and themselves, perhaps, affrighted by the successes of the French) our Ministry sent an Ambassador to Paris to sue for Peace. The supplies are granted: and in the meantime the Archduke Charles turns the scale of victory on the Rhine, and Buonaparte is checked before Mantua. Straightways our courtly messenger is commanded to uncurl his lips, and propose to the lofty Republic to restore all its conquests, and to suffer England to retain all hers (at least all her important ones), as the only terms of Peace, and the ultimatum of the negotiation! ˜Á±Ã{½µ¹ ³pÁ ±0ÃÇÁy¼·Ä¹Â ¤q»±¹½± ‘¡‘šŸ ‘ ÀÁÉÄ¿Àu¼É½ — AESCHYL., Ag. 222-4. The friends of Freedom in this country are idle. Some are timid; some are selfish; and many the torpedo torch of hopelessness has numbed into inactivity. We would fain hope that (if the above account be accurate — it is only the French account) this dreadful instance of infatuation in our Ministry will rouse them to one effort more; and that at one and the same time in our different great towns the people will be called on to think solemnly, and declare their thoughts fearlessly by every method which the remnant of the Constitution allows. 4{o}. IV] Antistrophe I. C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. 1797. Aye Memory sits: thy vest profan’d with gore. Thou with an unimaginable groan Gav’st reck’ning of thy Hours! 1803. wreathed locks with snow-white glories shone 1797, 1803. V] Antistrophe II. C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. On every Harp on every Tongue While the mute Enchantment hung: Like Midnight from a thunder-cloud Spake the sudden Spirit loud. C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. The sudden Spirit cried aloud. C. I. Like Thunder from a Midnight Cloud Spake the sudden Spirit loud 1803. [Between 83 and 84] By Belgium’s corse-impeded flood, By Vendee steaming [streaming C. I.] Brother’s blood. C. I., 4{o}, 1797, 1803. The Rhine. C. I., 1797, 1803. For ever shall the bloody island scowl? For ever shall her vast and iron bow Shoot Famine’s evil arrows o’er the world, Hark! how wide Nature joins her groans below; Rise, God of Mercy, rise! why sleep thy bolts unhurl’d? C. I. For ever shall the bloody Island scowl? For aye, unbroken shall her cruel Bow Shoot Famine’s arrows o’er thy ravaged World? Hark! how wide Nature joins her groans below — Rise, God of Nature, rise, why sleep thy Bolts unhurl’d? 4{o}, 1797, 1803. Rise God of Nature, rise! ah! why those bolts unhurl’d? 1797, 1803. ‘In Europe the smoking villages of Flanders and the putrified fields of La Vendée — from Africa the unnumbered victims of a detestable Slave-Trade. In Asia the desolated plains of Indostan, and the millions whom a rice-contracting Governor caused to perish. In America the recent enormities of the Scalp-merchants. The four quarters of the globe groan beneath the intolerable iniquity of the nation.’ See ‘Addresses to the People’, p. 46. C. I. VI] Epode II. 4{o}, 1797, 1803. 1803. Disclaim’d of Heaven! mad Avarice at thy side 4{o}, 1797. At coward distance, yet with kindling pride — Safe ‘mid thy herds and cornfields thou hast stood, And join’d the yell of Famine and of Blood. All nations curse thee: and with eager wond’ring 4{o}, 1797. Mid thy Corn-fields and Herds thou in plenty hast stood And join’d the loud yellings of Famine and Blood. 1803. Stretch’d on the marge of some fire-flashing fount In the black Chamber of a sulphur’d mount. 4{o}. In the long sabbath of high self-content. Cleans’d from the fleshly passions that bedim 4{o}. In the deep sabbath of blest self-content Cleans’d from the fears and anguish that bedim 1797. In the blest sabbath of high self-content Cleans’d from bedimming Fear, and Anguish weak and blind. 1803.