Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


KNOW THYSELF by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Poet Analysis

First Line: KNOW THYSELF - AND IS THIS THE PRIME
Last Line: IGNORE THYSELF, AND STRIVE TO KNOW THY GOD!
Subject(s): SELF; WORSHIP;

@3And from heaven descends know thyself.@1 -- Juvenal

Know thyself -- and is this the prime
And heaven-sprung adage of the olden time! --
Say, canst thou make thyself? -- Learn first that trade; --
Haply thou mayst know what thyself has made.
What hast thou, Man, that thou dar'st call thine own? --
What is there in thee, Man, that can be known? --
Dark fluxion, all unfixable by thought,
A phantom dim of past and future wrought,
Vain sister of the worm, -- life, death, soul, clod --
Ignore thyself, and strive to know thy God!



Home: PoetryExplorer.net