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The Eolian Harp

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The Eolian Harp
BY SAMU E L TAYLOR COLERID GE BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

ABOUT THIS POET

composed at clevedon, somersetshire

My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclined

Thus on mine arm, most soothing sweet it is
To sit beside our Cot, our Cot o’ergrown
With white-flowered Jasmin, and the broad-leaved Myrtle,
(Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!)
And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light,
Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve
Serenely brilliant (such would Wisdom be) Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the
Shine opposite! How exquisite the scents premier poet-critic of modern
Snatched from yon bean-field! and the world so hushed! English tradition, distinguished for
The stilly murmur of the distant Sea the scope and influence of his
Tells us of silence. thinking about literature as much
as for his innovative verse. Active in
And that simplest Lute, the wake of the French Revolution
Placed length-ways in the clasping casement, hark! as a dissenting pamphleteer and lay
How by the desultory breeze caressed, preacher, he...
Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover, Read Full Biography
It pours such sweet upbraiding, as must needs
Tempt to repeat the wrong! And now, its strings
Boldlier swept, the long sequacious notes MORE ABOUT THIS POET
Over delicious surges sink and rise,
Such a soft floating witchery of sound
Region: ENGLAND
As twilight Elfins make, when they at eve
Voyage on gentle gales from Fairy-Land, School/Period: ROMANTIC
Where Melodies round honey-dropping flowers,
Footless and wild, like birds of Paradise,
Nor pause, nor perch, hovering on untamed wing! Quick Tags
O! the one Life within us and abroad,
LOVE ROMANTIC LOVE
Which meets all motion and becomes its soul,
A light in sound, a sound-like power in light,
RELATIONSHIPS RELIGION
Rhythm in all thought, and joyance everywhere—
Methinks, it should have been impossible CHRISTIANITY
Not to love all things in a world so filled;
Where the breeze warbles, and the mute still air ARTS & SCIENCES

Is Music slumbering on her instrument.

POETRY & POETS

And thus, my Love! as on the midway slope

Of yonder hill I stretch my limbs at noon,
Whilst through my half-closed eyelids I behold
The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main,
And tranquil muse upon tranquility:
Full many a thought uncalled and undetained,
And many idle flitting phantasies,
Traverse my indolent and passive brain,
As wild and various as the random gales
That swell and flutter on this subject Lute!

And what if all of animated nature

Be but organic Harps diversely framed,
That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps
Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,
At once the Soul of each, and God of all?

But thy more serious eye a mild reproof

Darts, O beloved Woman! nor such thoughts
Dim and unhallowed dost thou not reject,
And biddest me walk humbly with my God.
Meek Daughter in the family of Christ!
Well hast thou said and holily dispraised
These shapings of the unregenerate mind;
Bubbles that glitter as they rise and break
On vain Philosophy’s aye-babbling spring.
For never guiltless may I speak of him,
The Incomprehensible! save when with awe
I praise him, and with Faith that inly feels;
Who with his saving mercies healèd me,
A sinful and most miserable man,
Wildered and dark, and gave me to possess
Peace, and this Cot, and thee, heart-honored Maid!

Source: The Longman Anthology of Poetry (Pearson, 2006)

M O R E P O E M S B Y S A M U E L T AY L O R C O L E R I D G E

Christabel Constancy to an Dejection: An Ode On Donne's Poetry Fragment 1: Sea-

BY SAMUEL TAYLOR Ideal Object BY SAMUEL TAYLOR BY SAMUEL TAYLOR ward, white gleam-
COLERIDGE COLERIDGE COLERIDGE
BY SAMUEL TAYLOR ing thro' the busy
COLERIDGE
scud
BY SAMUEL TAYLOR
COLERIDGE

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