Sorceress of the ebon throne!
Thy power the Pixies own,
When round thy raven brow
Heaven's lucent roses glow,

And clouds in watery colours drest Float in light drapery o'er thy sable vest: What time the pale moon sheds a softer day, Mellowing the woods beneath its pensive beam: For mid the quivering light 'tis ours to play, Aye dancing to the cadence of the stream.

VIII.

Welcome, Ladies! to the cell

Where the blameless Pixies dwell: But thou, sweet Nymph! proclaim'd our Faery Queen,

With what obeisance meet

Thy presence shall we greet?
For lo! attendant on thy steps are seen
Graceful Ease in artless stole,
And white-robed Purity of soul,
With Honour's softer mien ;

Mirth of the loosely-flowing hair,
And meek-eyed Pity eloquently fair,
Whose tearful cheeks are lovely to the view,
As snow-drop wet with dew.

IX.

Unboastful Maid! though now the lily pale Transparent grace thy beauties meek;

1 Unboastful.] The latest version of the poem to Joseph Cottle begins" unboastful bard," and we have "unboast ful stream" in Lines to a Beautiful Spring in a Village.

Yet ere again along the impurpling vale,
The purpling vale and elfin-haunted grove,
Young Zephyr his fresh flowers profusely
throws,

We'll tinge with livelier hues thy cheek;
And, haply, from the nectar-breathing rose
Extract a blush' for Love!

THE COMPOSITION OF A KISS.*

UPID, if storying legends tell aright,
Once framed a rich elixir of delight.
A chalice o'er love-kindled flames
he fix'd,

And in it nectar and ambrosia mix'd:

With these the magic dews, which evening

brings,

Brush'd from the Idalian star by faery wings: Each tender pledge of sacred faith he join❜d, Each gentler pleasure of th' unspotted mindDay-dreams, whose tints with sportive brightness glow,

And Hope, the blameless parasite of Woe.

1 Blush.] Compare the closing lines of the first stanza of The Kiss.

* While staying with his brother, the Rev. George Coleridge, at Ottery, in 1793, Coleridge visited Plymouth in his company. This poem, and The Rose, were written on that occasion on the fly-leaves of a copy of Collins, belonging to Miss F. Nesbitt. The heading is Cupid turned Chymist, and the date 1793 is appended.

The eyeless chemist heard the process rise,
The steamy chalice bubbled up in sighs;
Sweet sounds transpired, as when the en-
amour'd dove

Pours the soft murmuring of responsive love.
The finish'd work might Envy vainly blame,
And "Kisses" was the precious compound's

name;

With half the God his Cyprian Mother blest, And breathed on Sara's1 lovelier lips the rest.

THE ROSE.

S late each flower that sweetest blows
I pluck'd, the garden's pride!
Within the petals of a rose

A sleeping Love I spied:

Around his brows a beamy wreath
Of many a lucent hue;

All purple glow'd his cheek, beneath,
Inebriate with dew.

I softly seized the unguarded Power,
Nor scared his balmy rest:

The

1 Sara's.] One of Coleridge's mystifications. original name in this poem, as also in the next, was Nesbitt. It is possible that he made a second presentation of the two poems, in the year following.

And placed him, caged within the flower,
On spotless Sara's 'breast.

But when, unweeting of the guile,

Awoke the prisoner sweet,

He struggled to escape awhile,

And stamp'd his faery feet.

Ah! soon the soul-entrancing sight
Subdued the impatient boy!

He gazed! he thrill'd with deep delight!
Then clapp'd his wings for joy.

"And O!" he cried- -"of magic kind
What charms this throne endear!
Some other Love let Venus find-
I'll fix my empire here."

LINES ON AN AUTUMNAL EVENING.*

THOU wild Fancy, check thy wing!

No more

Those thin white flakes, those purple clouds, explore!

1 Sara's.] See note to The Composition of a Kiss. The original title was,-" On presenting a Moss Rose to Miss F. Nesbitt." The date is 1793.

* Stated in the first editions to have been "written in early youth." It could not have been written in very early youth, if "the Muses' calm abode," alludes to Cam. bridge.

The poem is redolent of Goldsmith and Gray.

Nor there with happy spirits speed thy flight,
Bathed in rich amber-glowing floods of light;
Nor in yon gleam, where slow descends the
day,

With western peasants hail the morning ray !
Ah! rather bid the perish'd pleasures move,
A shadowy train, across the soul of Love!
O'er disappointment's wintry desert fling
Each flower that wreathed the dewy locks of
Spring,

When blushing, like a bride, from hope's trim bower

She leapt, awaken'd by the pattering shower.

Now sheds the sinking sun a deeper gleam;
Aid, lovely Sorceress! aid thy poet's dream!
With faery wand O bid the maid arise,
Chaste joyance dancing in her bright blue eyes;
As erst when from the Muses' calm abode
I came, with learning's meed1 not unbestow'd;
When as she twined a laurel round my brow,
And met my kiss and half return'd my vow,
O'er all my frame shot rapid my thrill'd heart,
And every nerve confess'd the electric dart.

O dear deceit! I see the maiden rise,
Chaste joyance dancing in her bright blue eyes
When first the lark high-soaring swells his

throat,

Mocks the tired eye, and scatters the loud note,
I trace her footsteps on the accustom'd lawn,
I mark her glancing mid the gleam of dawn.

1 With learning's meed, &c.] Coleridge gained a gold medal at Cambridge for a Greek ode, in 1791.

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