Robert Bridges, ed. (1844–1930). The Spirit of Man: An Anthology. 1916. | | | | From Constancy to an Ideal Object |
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) |
| | | SINCE 1 all that beat about in Nature’s range, | |
| Or veer or vanish; why shouldst thou remain | |
| The only constant in a world of change, | |
| O yearning thought! that livest but in the brain? | |
| Call to the hours, that in the distance play, | 5 |
| The faery people of the future day— | |
| Fond thought! not one of all that shining swarm | |
| Will breathe on thee with life-enkindling breath, | |
| Till when, like strangers sheltering from a storm, | |
| Hope and Despair meet in the porch of Death!… | 10 |
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| And art thou nothing? Such thou art, as when | |
| The woodman winding westward up the glen | |
| At wintry dawn, where o’er the sheep-track’s maze | |
| The viewless snow-mist weaves a glistening haze, | |
| Sees full before him, gliding without tread, | 15 |
| An image with a glory round its head; | |
| The enamour’d rustic worships its fair hues, | |
| Nor knows he makes the shadow he pursues! | |
| | | Note 1. Coleridge. Constancy to an ideal object. ‘Sibylline Leaves’. This is the beginning and end. [back] | | |
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