Poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Love's Apparition and Evanishment: An Allegoric Romance

Like a lone Arab, old and blind,
Some caravan had left behind,
Who sits beside a ruin'd well,
Where the shy sand-asps bask and swell;
And now he hangs his ag{'e}d head aslant,
And listens for a human sound—in vain!
And now the aid, which Heaven alone can grant,
Upturns his eyeless face from Heaven to gain;—
Even thus, in vacant mood, one sultry hour,
Resting my eye upon a drooping plant,
With brow low-bent, within my garden-bower,
I sate upon the couch of camomile;
And—whether 'twas a transient sleep, perchance,
Flitted across the idle brain, the while
I watch'd the sickly calm with aimless scope,
In my own heart; or that, indeed a trance,
Turn'd my eye inward—thee, O genial Hope,
Love's elder sister! thee did I behold
Drest as a bridesmaid, but all pale and cold,
With roseless cheek, all pale and cold and dim,
      Lie lifeless at my feet!
And then came Love, a sylph in bridal trim,
      And stood beside my seat;
She bent, and kiss'd her sister's lips,
      As she was wont to do;—
Alas! 'twas but a chilling breath
Woke just enough of life in death
      To make Hope die anew.

1. Lines
2. Brockley Coomb
3. Aplolgia Pro Vita Sua
4. The Happy Husband
5. The Pang More Sharp Than All

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