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LINES FROM A NOTEBOOK - OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1806 by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Poet Analysis

First Line: HIS OWN FAIR COUNTENANCE, HIS KINGLY FOREHEAD
Last Line: AND SATURATE WITH THE INTELLECTUAL RAYS, IT SOFTEN'D.

His own fair countenance, his kingly forehead
His tender smiles, Love's day-dawn on his Lips
That put on such heavenly spiritual light
At the same moment in his steadfast eyes/
Were virtue's native crest, the innocent Soul's
Unconscious meek Self-heraldry -- to man
Genial, and pleasant to his guardian angel --
He suffered, nor complain'd; tho' oft, with tears,
He mourn'd the oppression of his helpless Brethren, --
And sometimes with a deeper, holier grief
Mourn'd for the oppressor: but that in Sabbath Hours -- a solemn grief,
That like a Cloud at sunset,
Was but the veil of inward meditation,
Pierc'd thro'
And saturate with the intellectual rays, it soften'd.



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