Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A YOUNG LADY, WITH A POEM ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Much on my early youth I love to dwell Last Line: From flattery's night-shade: as he feels he sings. Subject(s): French Revolution (1789) | ||||||||
Much on my early youth I love to dwell, Ere yet I bade that friendly dome farewell, Where first, beneath the echoing cloisters pale I heard of guilt and wondered at the tale! Yet though the hours flew by on careless wing, Full heavily of Sorrow would I sing. Aye as the star of evening flung its beam In broken radiance on the wavy stream, My soul amid the pensive twilight gloom Mourned with the breeze, O Lee Boo! o'er thy tomb. Where'er I wandered, Pity still was near, Breathed from the heart and glistened in the tear: No knell that tolled, but filled my anxious eye, And suffering Nature wept that one should die! Thus to sad sympathies I soothed my breast, Calm, as the rainbow in the weeping West: When slumbering Freedom roused by high Disdain With giant fury burst her triple chain! Fierce on her front the blasting Dog-star glowed; Her banners, like a midnight meteor, flowed; Amid the yelling of the storm-rent skies She came, and scattered battles from her eyes! Then Exultation waked the patriot fire And swept with wild hand the Tyrtaean lyre: Red from the Tyrant's wound I shook the lance, And strode in joy the reeking plains of France! Fallen is the oppressor, friendless, ghastly, low, And my heart aches, though Mercy struck the blow. With wearied thought once more I seek the shade, Where peaceful Virtue weaves the myrtle braid. And O! if Eyes whose holy glances roll, Swift messengers, and eloquent of soul; If Smiles more winning, and a gentler Mien Than the love-wildered Maniac's brain hath seen Shaping celestial forms in vacant air, If these demand the impassion'd Poet's care -- If Mirth and softened Sense and Wit refined, The blameless features of a lovely mind; Then haply shall my trembling hand assign No fading wreath to Beauty's saintly shrine. Nor, Sara! thou these early flowers refuse -- Ne'er lurked the snake beneath their simple hues; No purple bloom the Child of Nature brings From Flattery's night-shade: as he feels he sings. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FRANCE: AN ODE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE LOUIS XV by JOHN STERLING (1806-1844) FRENCH REVOLUTION; AS IT APPEARED TO ENTHUSIASTS AT ITS COMMENCEMENT by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH LINES WRITTEN ... ONE WHO HAD WATCHED .. AMERICAN & FRENCH REVOLUTIONS by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES THE FRENCH REVOLUTION by WILLIAM BLAKE VERSAILLES (1784) by STOPFORD AUGUSTUS BROOKE THE MIDNIGHT MASS; AN INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION by ADA CAMBRIDGE AN ODE ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THE BASTILE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE TALLEYRAND TO LORD GRENVILLE; A METRICAL EPISTLE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A CHILD'S EVENING PRAYER by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A DAY DREAM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A THOUGHT SUGGESTED BY A VIEW, OF SADDLEBACK IN CUMBERLAND by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |
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