Samuel Taylor Coleridge on the Internet

[Karl Rommel]

Where on the internet can I find:

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'The Ballad of the Dark Lady'?

Thanks in anticipation.

[Logos]

Are you sure you don't mean Shakespeare's 'dark lady', whom it is said he addresses in his Sonnets 127-152?
http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/329/

[Karl Rommel]

No Logos:(

Here is a list of his poems from one book on e-bay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1886-Samuel-Taylor-COLERIDGE-Poems-POETRY-Skipsey_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQitemZ140151203792

Thank you twice!:)

[Logos]

Ah ok :)

The Internet Archive has a few versions of that book:
http://www.archive.org/details/poemsofsamueltay00coleuoft

here's the plain text one:
http://ia301335.us.archive.org/1/items/poemsofsamueltay00coleuoft/poemsofsamueltay00coleuoft_djvu.txt



INTRODUCTION TO THE TALE OF THE DARK LADIE

O LEAVE the lily on its stem ;
O leave the rose upon the spray ;
O leave the elder-bloom, fair maids !
And listen to my lay.

A cypress and a myrtle bough
This morn around my harp you twined,
Because it fashioned mournfully
Its murmurs in the wind.

And now a tale of love and woe,
A woeful tale of love I sing ;
Hark, gentle maidens ! hark, it sighs
And trembles on the string.

But most, my own dear Genevieve,
It sighs and trembles most for thee !
O come and hear the cruel wrongs,
Befell the Dark Ladie ! 1



1 Here followed the stanzas, afterwards published sepa-
rately under the title ' Love ' (see p. 164), and after them
came the other three stanzas printed above ; the whole
forming the introduction to the intended ' Dark Ladie ',
of which all that exists is subjoined.



108 THE BALLAD OF THE DARK LADIE

And now, once more a tale of woe,
A woeful tale of love I sing ;
For thee, my Genevieve, it sighs,
And trembles on the string.

When last I sang the cruel scorn
That crazed this bold and lonely knight,
And how he roam'd the mountain woods,
Nor rested day or night ;

I promised thee a sister tale,
Of man's perfidious cruelty ;
Come then and hear what cruel wrong
Befell the Dark Ladie.



THE BALLAD OF THE DARK LADIE

A FRAGMENT.

BENEATH yon birch with silver bark,
And boughs so pendulous and fair,
The brook falls scatter'd down the rock :
And all is mossy there !

And there upon the moss she sits,
The Dark Ladie in silent pain ;
The heavy tear is in her eye,
And drops and swells again.

Three times she sends her little page
Up the castled mountain's breast,
If he might find the knight that wears
The griffin for his crest.

The sun was sloping down the sky,

And she had lingered there all day,

Counting moments, dreaming fears

Oh wherefore can he stay ?

She hears a rustling o'er the brook,
She sees far off a swinging bough !
' 'Tis he ! 'Tis my betrothed knight !
Lord Falkland, is it thou ! '



THE BALLAD OF THE DARK LADIE 109

She springs, she clasps him round the neck,
She sobs a thousand hopes and fears,
Her kisses glowing on his cheeks
She quenches with her tears.

' My friends with rude ungentle words
They scoff and bid me fly to thee !

give me shelter in thy breast !

O shield and shelter me !

' My Henry, I have given thee much,

1 gave what I can ne'er recall,

I gave my heart, I gave my peace,
O Heaven ! I gave thee all.'

The knight made answer to the maid,
While to his heart he held her hand,
' Nine castles hath my noble sire,
None statelier in the land.

' The fairest one shall be my love's,
The fairest castle of the nine !
Wait only till the stars peep out,
The fairest shall be thine :

' Wait only till the hand of eve
Hath wholly closed yon western bars,
And through the dark we two will steal
Beneath the twinkling stars ! '

' The dark ? the dark ? No ! not the dark !
The twinkling stars ? How, Henry ? How ?
O God ! 'twas in the eye of noon
He pledged his sacred vow !

' And in the eye of noon, my love
Shall lead me from my mother's door,
Sweet boys and girls all clothed in white
Strewing flowers before :

' But first the nodding minstrels go
With music meet for lordly bowers,
The children next in snow-white vests,
Strewing buds and flowers !



110 THE BALLAD OF THE DARK LADIE

' And then my love and I shall pace,
My jet black hair in pearly braids,
Between our comely bachelors
And blushing bridal maids.'

.
.

[quasimodo1]

" No man was ever yet a great poet,
without being at the same time a profound philosopher.
For poetry is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge,
human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language. "

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

[Karl Rommel]

Very nice Quasimodo1, it seems that I have to hunt through 'Biographia Literaria' to find it.

Do you have a favourite S.T.C. site?

Greetings from across the mill pond!

[quasimodo1]

To Karl Rommel: Yes, I do have the link and the work. Give me a minute. quasi

[quasimodo1]

To Karl Rommel: Greetings from Pennsylvania, across a pond and Deleware Bay. I apologize; do not have the work. I do have some great links on Coleridge. Here's where I got the quote.....http://www.poetseers.org/the_great_poets .....but this site has way more; very usefull. I'm a marginal enthusiast about STC but borderline fanatical on other writers, mostly poets. You might need a string search to find it. Regards, quasimodo1

[Karl Rommel]

Nice one quasimodo1

It even has a link to the BBC series 'Romantics' that I had forgotten about!

Thank you.