ABSTRACT
Date of composition unknown; possibly early in 1815. S. ordered ‘Coleridge’s Poems’ (i.e. the 3rd edn of Poems, 1803) on 24 December 1812 (L i 345), and the book is listed among those read in 1815 (Mary Jnl i 90). S. mentions an edition of Euripides on 13 February 1815 (Mary Jnl i 64). But he ordered a translation of the Hippolytus on 27 September (L i 433), so the poem (or just its Greek heading) may belong to the autumn (see note on line 1). In 1816 the poem appeared under the Greek heading only; for 1839 (iii 6), Mary S. substituted the title ‘To ****.’, explaining in her ‘Note on the Early Poems’: ‘The poem beginning “Oh, there are spirits in the air [sic],” was addressed in idea to Coleridge, whom he never knew; and at whose character he could only guess imperfectly, through his writings, and accounts he heard of him from some who knew him well. He regarded his change of opinion as rather an act of will than conviction, and believed that in his inner heart he would be haunted by what Shelley considered the better and holier aspirations of his youth.’ (iii 15–16). There is no good reason to doubt Mary’s long and informed account, though many have preferred to think the poem addressed to S. himself. If so, lines 13–16 describe his loss of Harriet Grove, while stanzas 5–6 reflect S.’s realization of the failure of his marriage to Harriet Westbrook, and the poem must date from spring 1814. But in writing of one ‘whom he never knew’, it is likely, as Peter Butter suggested, that S. ‘felt, or imagined, an affinity with Coleridge, and used his own experience in interpreting the other’s’ (Butter (1970) 246). The poem’s picture of its subject is very similar to that of Coleridge in PB3 383–7: … a man who might have turned Hell into Heaven — and so in gladness A Heaven unto himself have earned; But he in shadows undiscerned Trusted, — and damned himself to madness. S. may have drawn on other supposed experiences too (see note to lines 13–16 below). As Butter also notes, the theme is related to that of Alastor. The Greek title-epigraph is from Euripides, Hippolytus 1142–3, slightly truncated: ‘[For your sad fate] I shall endure with tears an unfortunate fortune’. The Chorus is commiserating with Hippolytus, exiled by his father after his mother’s false accusation of rape.
