Lewti

"Lewti, or the Circassian Love-chaunt" is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798.

Lewti, or the Circassian Love-chaunt
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
MeterIambic tetrameter
Rhyme schemeIrregular
Publication date
  • 1798
  • 1800
  • 1817
  • 1828
  • 1829
  • 1834
Lines83
Full text
Sibylline Leaves (Coleridge)/Lewti at Wikisource

Publication

This poem was first published in the Morning Post (under the signature Nicias Erythraeus), on 18 April 1798: and was included in the Annual Anthology, 1800; and Sibylline Leaves, 1817, 1828, 1829, and 1834.[1] In the Morning Post the poem was originally entitled "Lewti; or the Circassian's Love Chant".[1]

"Lewti" was to have been included in the Lyrical Ballads of 1798, but at the last moment the sheets containing it were cancelled and "The Nightingale" substituted.[2][1] A copy which belonged to Southey, with the new Table of Contents and "The Nightingale" bound up with the text as at first printed, is in the British Library.[1] Another copy is extant which contains the first Table of Contents only, and Lewti without the addition of "The Nightingale".[1] In the Morning Post the following note accompanies the poem:

It is not amongst the least pleasing of our recollections, that we have been the means of gratifying the public taste with some exquisite pieces of Original Poetry. For many of them we have been indebted to the author of the Circassian's Love Chant. Amidst images of war and woe, amidst scenes of carnage and horror of devastation and dismay, it may afford the mind a temporary relief to wander to the magic haunts of the Muses, to bowers and fountains which the despoiling powers of war have never visited, and where the lover pours forth his complaint, or receives the recompense of his constancy. The whole of the subsequent Love Chant is in a warm and impassioned strain. The fifth and last stanzas are, we think, the best.[1]

Text
  • Poster advertising Circassian hair dye, 1843
    Poster advertising Circassian hair dye, 1843
  • Henry Hall Pickersgill: A Circassian Beauty, c. 1843–50
    Henry Hall Pickersgill: A Circassian Beauty, c. 1843–50
  • Circassian lady, possibly Nazikeda Kadın
    Circassian lady, possibly Nazikeda Kadın

See also

Notes
  1. Between lines 14–15:
    I saw the white waves, o'er and o'er,
    Break against the distant shore.
    All at once upon the sight,
    All at once they broke in light;
    I heard no murmur of their roar,
    Nor ever I beheld them flowing,
    Neither coming, neither going;
    But only saw them o'er and o'er,
    Break against the curved shore:
    Now disappearing from the sight,
    Now twinkling regular and white,
    And Lewti's smiling mouth can shew
    As white and regular a row.
    Nay, treach'rous image from my mind
    Depart; for Lewti is not kind.
    (Morning Post)
  2. Line 52: For] Tho'
    (Morning Post)
  3. Between lines 52–3:
    This hand should make his life-blood flow,
      That ever scorn'd my Lewti so.
    I cannot chuse but fix my sight
    On that small vapour, thin and white!
    So thin it scarcely, I protest,
      Bedims the star that shines behind it!
    And pity dwells in Lewti's breast
      Alas! if I knew how to find it.
    And O! how sweet it were, I wist,
      To see my Lewti's eyes to-morrow
    Shine brightly thro' as thin a mist
      Of pity and repentant sorrow!
    Nay treach'rous image! leave my mind—
    Ah, Lewti! why art thou unkind?
  4. Line 53: Hush!] Slush! (Sibylline Leaves; Errata, S. L., p. [xi], for 'Slush' read 'Hush').
  5. Lines 69–71:
      Had I the enviable power
    To creep unseen with noiseless tread
    Then should I view
    (Morning Post, Annual Anthology)
    O beating heart had I the power.
    (MS. Correction, Annual Anthology, by S. T. C.)
  6. Line 73: my] the
    (Morning Post, Annual Anthology)

References
  1. Coleridge, ed. 1912, p. 253.
  2. Note to reprint of Lyrical Ballads (1898), edited by T. Hutchinson.

Sources
  • Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, ed. (1912). The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 253–56, 1049–62. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Further reading
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