Ode to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Samuel Taylor Coleridge * Track #165 On The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol I

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Ode to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Ode to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire Annotated

&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspAnd hail the Chapel! hail the Platform wild!
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspWhere Tell directed the avenging dart,
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspWith well-strung arm, that first preservst his child,
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspThen aim'd the arrow at the tyrant's heart.

Splendour's fondly-fostered child!
And did you hail the platform wild,
&nbspWhere once the Austrian fell
&nbspBeneath the shaft of Tell!
O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure!
Whence learn'd you that heroic measure?

Light as a dream your days their circlets ran,
From all that teaches brotherhood to Man
&nbspFar, far removed! from want, from hope, from fear!
&nbspEnchanting music lulled your infant ear,
Obeisance, praises soothed your infant heart:
Emblazonments and old ancestral crests,
With many a bright obtrusive form of art,
Detained your eye from Nature: stately vests,
That veiling strove to deck your charms divine,
Rich viands, and the pleasurable wine,
Were yours unearned by toil; nor could you see
The unenjoying toiler's misery.
And yet, free Nature's uncorrupted child,
You hailed the Chapel and the Platform wild,
&nbsp       &nbspWhere once the Austrian fell
&nbsp       &nbspBeneath the shaft of Tell!
&nbspO Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure!
&nbspWhence learn'd you that heroic measure?

There crowd your finely-fibred frame
&nbspAll living faculties of bliss;
And Genius to your cradle came,
His forehead wreathed with lambent flame,
&nbspAnd bending low, with godlike kiss
&nbspBreath'd in a more celestial life;
But boasts not many a fair compeer
&nbspA heart as sensitive to joy and fear?
And some, perchance, might wage an equal strife,
Some few, to nobler being wrought,
Corrivals in the nobler gift of thought.
&nbsp       &nbspYet these delight to celebrate
&nbsp       &nbspLaurelled War and plumy State;
&nbsp       &nbspOr in verse and music dress
&nbsp       &nbspTales of rustic happiness—
Pernicious tales! insidious strains!
&nbsp       &nbspThat steel the rich man's breast,
&nbsp       &nbspAnd mock the lot unblest,
&nbspThe sordid vices and the abject pains,
&nbspWhich evermore must be
&nbspThe doom of ignorance and penury!
But you, free Nature's uncorrupted child,
You hailed the Chapel and the Platform wild,
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspWhere once the Austrian fell
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspBeneath the shaft of Tell!
&nbsp       &nbspO Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure!
&nbsp       &nbspWhence learn'd you that heroic measure?

You were a Mother! That most holy name,
&nbsp       &nbspWhich Heaven and Nature bless,
&nbspI may not vilely prostitute to those
&nbsp       &nbspWhose infants owe them less
&nbspThan the poor caterpillar owes
&nbsp       &nbspIts gaudy parent fly.
You were a mother! at your bosom fed
&nbspThe babes that loved you. You, with laughing eye,
Each twilight-thought, each nascent feeling read,
&nbspWhich you yourself created. Oh! delight!
&nbsp       &nbspA second time to be a mother,
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspWithout the mother's bitter groans:
&nbsp       &nbspAnother thought, and yet another,
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspBy touch, or taste, by looks or tones,
&nbspO'er the growing sense to roll,
&nbspThe mother of your infant's soul!
The Angel of the Earth, who, while he guides
&nbspHis chariot-planet round the goal of day,
All trembling gazes on the eye of God
&nbspA moment turned his awful face away;
And as he viewed you, from his aspect sweet
&nbspNew influences in your being rose,
Blest intuitions and communions fleet
&nbspWith living Nature, in her joys and woes!
&nbsp       &nbspThenceforth your soul rejoiced to see
&nbsp       &nbspThe shrine of social Liberty!
&nbsp       &nbspO beautiful! O Nature's child!
&nbsp       &nbsp'Twas thence you hailed the Platform wild,
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspWhere once the Austrian fell
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspBeneath the shaft of Tell!
&nbsp       &nbspO Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure!
&nbsp       &nbspThence learn'd you that heroic measure

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