Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHITHER?, by DAVID HARTLEY COLERIDGE


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WHITHER?, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Whither is gone the wisdom and the power
Last Line: Sustain our spirits with their roundelays.
Alternate Author Name(s): Coleridge, Hartley


WHITHER is gone the wisdom and the power
That ancient sages scatter'd with the notes
Of thought-suggesting lyres? The music floats
In the void air; e'en at this breathing hour,
In every cell and every blooming bower
The sweetness of old lays is hovering still:
But the strong soul, the self-constraining will,
The rugged root that bare the winsome flower
Is weak and wither'd. Were we like the Fays
That sweetly nestle in the foxglove bells,
Or lurk and murmur in the rose-lipp'd shells
Which Neptune to the earth for quit-rent pays,
Then might our pretty modern Philomels
Sustain our spirits with their roundelays.





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