No More Learning

, "'my'. "--Ed. ]


[Footnote D: Different reading on same MS. , "'and'. "--Ed. ]



In a MS. copy of 'Dejection, An Ode', transcribed for Sir George
Beaumont on the 4th of April 1802--and sent to him, when living with
Lord Lowther at Lowther Hall--there is evidence that the poem was
originally addressed to Wordsworth.

The following lines in this copy can be compared with those finally
adopted:

'O dearest William! in this heartless mood,
To other thoughts by yonder throstle woo'd
All this long eve so balmy and serene
Have I been gazing on the western sky,'

. . .

'O William, we _receive_ but what we _give_:
And in our life alone does Nature live. '

. . .
'Yes, dearest William! Yes!
There was a time when though my Path was rough
This Joy within me dallied with distress. '


The MS. copy is described by Coleridge as "imperfect"; and it breaks off
abruptly at the lines:

'Suspends what Nature gave me at my birth
My shaping spirit of Imagination. '

And he continues:

'I am so weary of this doleful poem, that I must leave off. . . . '

Another MS. copy of this poem, amongst the Coleorton papers, is signed
"S. T. Coleridge to William Wordsworth. " Ed.





* * * * *





NOTE VII. --GENERAL BEAUPUY


(See pp.