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COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834). Autograph letter signed ("S.T. Coleridge"), to James Gillman, Little Hampton, 29 October 1817, WITH A FAIR COPY MANUSCRIPT OF THE SONNET "Fancy in Nubibus" ("O! It is pleasant with a heart at ease") the verses neatly titled at the head of the sheet: "Fancy in Nubibus A Sonnet composed at Little Hampton, 29 Oct. 1817," with alternate readings for portions of two lines noted at bottom by the poet.
Oblong 8o, together 3 pages: the letter 2 pages, the sonnet written on the verso across two pages. (Lower edge unevenly trimmed affecting three words following Coleridge's signature, small tear along one fold, tipped to a separate sheet). Provenance: sold Sotheby's 28 November 1972, lot 351, to Quaritch -- purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 6 February 1973.
THE ONLY KNOWN AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF COLERIDGE'S SONNET "FANCY IN NUBIBUS," INSPIRED BY A "GLORIOUS SUNSET"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes to his friend, and benefactor James Gillman, with whom he resided from 1816 while endeavoring to reduce his consumption of opium. This was a period of great productivity for Coleridge, which also produced "Kubla Khan," "Christabel" and "The Pains of Sleep." In the letter, he describes the circumstance of the poem's composition: "As I came in this evening after a glorious sunset a sort of lazy poetic mood came upon me and almost without knowing it I compos'd the following sonnet, which merely because it is the first Resumption of the Rhyming Idleness Mrs. G. will have me send you . It has one character of a Sonnet that it is like something that we let escape from us--a Sigh, for instance. I am so far onward with the Essay, in which I regret the good parts only, that I have little doubt it will be properly finished by this day week..." Coleridge, Letters, ed. E.L. Griggs, vol. 4, p.780.
The sonnet reads: "O it is pleasant with a heart at ease, Just after Sunset or by moonlight skies, To make the shifting Clouds be what you please; Or let the easily persuaded Eyes Own each quaint Likeness framed within the mould Of a Friend's fancy; or with head bent low And sidelong glance see Rivers flow of Gold Twixt crimson Banks; and then, a Traveller, go From Mount to Mount, thro' Cloudland, gorgeous Land Or listening to the Tide, with closed sight, Be that Blind Bard, who on the Chian Strand, By the deep sounds inform'd with inward Light, Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssee Rise to the swelling of the voiceful Sea!" At the bottom, in the form of footnotes, are two suggested variant readings. Coleridge has considered replacing "framed within the mould" with "issuing from the mould" and "with closed sight" by "with Lids prest tight" [a note in pencil indicates that the first change was adopted and the second rejected]. The sonnet was published in The Courier 30 January 1818. Rosenbaum and White, Index of English Literary Manuscripts, vol.IV, Part 1, p. 527 (Cos161).
Oblong 8o, together 3 pages: the letter 2 pages, the sonnet written on the verso across two pages. (Lower edge unevenly trimmed affecting three words following Coleridge's signature, small tear along one fold, tipped to a separate sheet). Provenance: sold Sotheby's 28 November 1972, lot 351, to Quaritch -- purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 6 February 1973.
THE ONLY KNOWN AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF COLERIDGE'S SONNET "FANCY IN NUBIBUS," INSPIRED BY A "GLORIOUS SUNSET"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes to his friend, and benefactor James Gillman, with whom he resided from 1816 while endeavoring to reduce his consumption of opium. This was a period of great productivity for Coleridge, which also produced "Kubla Khan," "Christabel" and "The Pains of Sleep." In the letter, he describes the circumstance of the poem's composition: "As I came in this evening after a glorious sunset a sort of lazy poetic mood came upon me and almost without knowing it I compos'd the following sonnet, which merely because it is the first Resumption of the Rhyming Idleness Mrs. G. will have me send you . It has one character of a Sonnet that it is like something that we let escape from us--a Sigh, for instance. I am so far onward with the Essay, in which I regret the good parts only, that I have little doubt it will be properly finished by this day week..." Coleridge, Letters, ed. E.L. Griggs, vol. 4, p.780.
The sonnet reads: "O it is pleasant with a heart at ease, Just after Sunset or by moonlight skies, To make the shifting Clouds be what you please; Or let the easily persuaded Eyes Own each quaint Likeness framed within the mould Of a Friend's fancy; or with head bent low And sidelong glance see Rivers flow of Gold Twixt crimson Banks; and then, a Traveller, go From Mount to Mount, thro' Cloudland, gorgeous Land Or listening to the Tide, with closed sight, Be that Blind Bard, who on the Chian Strand, By the deep sounds inform'd with inward Light, Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssee Rise to the swelling of the voiceful Sea!" At the bottom, in the form of footnotes, are two suggested variant readings. Coleridge has considered replacing "framed within the mould" with "issuing from the mould" and "with closed sight" by "with Lids prest tight" [a note in pencil indicates that the first change was adopted and the second rejected]. The sonnet was published in The Courier 30 January 1818. Rosenbaum and White, Index of English Literary Manuscripts, vol.IV, Part 1, p. 527 (Cos161).