The Garden of Boccaccio

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Of late, in one of those most weary hours,
When life seems emptied of all genial powers,
A dready mood, which he who ne'er has known
May bless his happy lot, I sate alone ;
And, from the numbing spell to win relief,
Call'd on the Past for thought of glee or grief.
In vain ! bereft alike of grief and glee,
I sate and cow'r'd o'er my own vacancy !
And as I watch'd the dull continuous ache,
Which, all else slumb'ring, seem'd alone to wake ;
O Friend ! long wont to notice yet conceal,
And soothe by silence what words cannot heal,
I but half saw that quiet hand of thine
Place on my desk this exquisite design.
Boccaccio's Garden and its faery,
The love, the joyaunce, and the gallantry !
An Idyll, with Boccaccio's spirit warm,
Framed in the silent poesy of form.

    Like flocks adown a newly-bathéd steep
    Emerging from a mist : or like a stream
Of music soft that not dispels the sleep,
    But casts in happier moulds the slumberer's dream,
Gazed by an idle eye with silent might
The picture stole upon my inward sight.
A tremulous warmth crept gradual o'er my chest,
As though an infant's finger touch'd my breast.
And one by one (I know not whence) were brought
All spirits of power that most had stirr'd my thought
In selfless boyhood, on a new world tost
Of wonder, and in its own fancies lost ;
Or charm'd my youth, that, kindled from above,
Loved ere it loved, and sought a form for love ;
Or lent a lustre to the earnest scan
Of manhood, musing what and whence is man !
...
And many a verse which to myself I sang,
That woke the tear, yet stole away the pang,
Of hopes, which in lamenting I renew'd :
...

    Thanks, gentle artist ! now I can descry
    Thy fair creation with a mastering eye,
    And all awake ! And now in fix'd gaze stand,
    Now wander through the Eden of thy hand ;
    ...
    I see no longer ! I myself am there,
    Sit on the ground-sward, and the banquet share.
    'Tis I, that sweep that lute's love-echoing strings,
    And gaze upon the maid who gazing sings :
    Or pause and listen to the tinkling bells
    From the high tower, and think that there she dwells.
    With old Boccaccio's soul I stand possest,
    And breathe an air like life, that swells my chest.
    ...

    Still in thy garden let me watch their pranks,
    ...
    With that sly satyr peeping through the leaves !