The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poems, Plays, Essays, Lectures, Autobiography & Personal Letters (Illustrated). Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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СКАЧАТЬ minds for ever flow,

       As thy deep waters now are flowing.

      Vain thought! yet be as now thou art,

       That in thy waters may be seen

       The image of a poet’s heart,

       How bright, how solemn, how serene!

       Such as did once the poet bless,

       Who, pouring here a later ditty,

       Could find no refuge from distress,

       But in the milder grief of pity.

      Remembrance! as we float along,

       For him suspend the dashing oar,

       And pray that never child of Song

       May know his freezing sorrows more.

       How calm! how still! the only sound,

       The dripping of the oar suspended!

       — The evening darkness gathers round

       By virtue’s holiest powers attended.

THE IDIOT BOY.

       Table of Contents

      ’Tis eight o’clock, — a clear March night,

       The moon is up — the sky is blue,

       The owlet in the moonlight air,

       He shouts from nobody knows where;

       He lengthens out his lonely shout,

       Halloo! halloo! a long halloo!

      — Why bustle thus about your door,

       What means this bustle, Betty Foy?

       Why are you in this mighty fret?

       And why on horseback have you set

       Him whom you love, your idiot boy?

      Beneath the moon that shines so bright,

       Till she is tired, let Betty Foy

       With girt and stirrup fiddle-faddle;

       But wherefore set upon a saddle

       Him whom she loves, her idiot boy?

      There’s scarce a soul that’s out of bed;

       Good Betty put him down again;

       His lips with joy they burr at you,

       But, Betty! what has he to do

       With stirrup, saddle, or with rein?

      The world will say ‘tis very idle,

       Bethink you of the time of night;

       There’s not a mother, no not one,

       But when she hears what you have done,

       Oh! Betty she’ll be in a fright.

      But Betty’s bent on her intent,

       For her good neighbour, Susan Gale,

       Old Susan, she who dwells alone,

       Is sick, and makes a piteous moan,

       As if her very life would fail.

      There’s not a house within a mile,

       No hand to help them in distress;

       Old Susan lies a bed in pain,

       And sorely puzzled are the twain,

       For what she ails they cannot guess.

      And Betty’s husband’s at the wood,

       Where by the week he doth abide,

       A woodman in the distant vale;

       There’s none to help poor Susan Gale,

       What must be done? what will betide?

      And Betty from the lane has fetched

       Her pony, that is mild and good,

       Whether he be in joy or pain,

       Feeding at will along the lane,

       Or bringing faggots from the wood.

      And he is all in travelling trim,

       And by the moonlight, Betty Foy

       Has up upon the saddle set,

       The like was never heard of yet,

       Him whom she loves, her idiot boy.

      And he must post without delay

       Across the bridge that’s in the dale,

       And by the church, and o’er the down,

       To bring a doctor from the town,

       Or she will die, old Susan Gale.

      There is no need of boot or spur,

       There is no need of whip or wand,

       For Johnny has his holly-bough,

       And with a hurly-burly now

       He shakes the green bough in his hand.

      And Betty o’er and o’er has told

       The boy who is her best delight,

       Both what to follow, what to shun,

       What do, and what to leave undone,

       How turn to left, and how to right.

      And Betty’s most especial charge,

       Was, “Johnny! Johnny! mind that you

       Come home again, nor stop at all,

       Come home again, whate’er befal,

       My Johnny do, I pray you do.”

      To this did Johnny answer make,

       Both with his head, and with his hand,

       And proudly shook the bridle too,

       And then! his words were not a few,

       Which Betty well could understand.

      And СКАЧАТЬ