The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Chapter 345 : We've fought for Peace, and conquer'd it at last, The rav'ning vulture&

We've fought for Peace, and conquer'd it at last, The rav'ning vulture's leg seems fetter'd fast!

Britons, rejoice! and yet be wary too: The chain may break, the clipt wing sprout anew.

First published in Cottle's _Early Recollections_, 1836, ii. 145. First collected 1890.

ANOTHER VERSION

We've conquered us a Peace, like lads true metalled: And Bankrupt _Nap's_ accounts seem all now settled.

_Ibid._ ii. 145. First collected 1893.

68

Money, I've heard a wise man say, Makes herself wings and flies away-- Ah! would she take it in her head To make a pair for me instead.

First published (from an MS.) in 1893.

69

MODERN CRITICS

No private grudge they need, no personal spite, The _viva sectio_ is its own delight!

All enmity, all envy, they disclaim, Disinterested thieves of our good name-- Cool, sober murderers of their neighbours' fame!

First published in _Biog. Lit._, 1817, ii. 118. First collected in _P.

W._, 1885, ii. 363.

70

WRITTEN IN AN ALb.u.m

Parry seeks the Polar ridge, Rhymes seeks S. T. Coleridge, Author of Works, whereof--tho' not in Dutch-- The public little knows--the publisher too much.

First published in 1834.

71

TO A LADY WHO REQUESTED ME TO WRITE A POEM UPON NOTHING

On nothing, f.a.n.n.y, shall I write?

Shall I not one charm of thee indite?

The Muse is most unruly, And vows to sing of what's more free, More soft, more beautiful than thee;-- And that is _Nothing_, truly!

First published in the _Gazette of Fas.h.i.+on_, Feb. 22, 1822. Reprinted (by Mr. Bertram Dobell) in _N. and Q._, 10th Series, vol. vi, p. 145.

Now collected for the first time.

72

SENTIMENTAL

The rose that blushes like the morn, Bedecks the valleys low; And so dost thou, sweet infant corn, My Angelina's toe.

But on the rose there grows a thorn That breeds disastrous woe; And so dost thou, remorseless corn, On Angelina's toe.

First published in _Lit. Rem._, i. 59. First collected _P. and D. W._, 1877, ii. 366.

73

So Mr. Baker heart did pluck-- And did a-courting go!

And Mr. Baker is a buck; For why? he _needs_ the _doe_.

First published in _Letters, Conversations, &c._, 1836, ii. 21. First collected in _P. and D. W._, 1877, ii. 373.

74

AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS

'A heavy wit shall hang at every lord,'

So sung Dan Pope; but 'pon my word, He was a story-teller, Or else the times have altered quite; For wits, or heavy, now, or light Hang each by a bookseller.

S. T. C.

First published in _News of Literature_, Dec. 10, 1825. See _Arch.

Constable and his Literary Correspondents_, 1873, iii. 482. First collected in 1893.

75

THE ALTERNATIVE

This way or that, ye Powers above me!

I of my grief were rid-- Did Enna either really love me, Or cease to think she did.

First published in _Lit. Rem._, i. 59. Included in _Essays, &c._, iii.

987. First collected in _P. W._, 1885, ii. 364.

76

In Spain, that land of Monks and Apes, The thing called Wine doth come from grapes, But on the n.o.ble River Rhine, The thing called Gripes doth come from Wine!