Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LINES WRITTEN AT SHURTON BARS, NEAR BRIDGEWATER, by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Nor travels my meandering eye Last Line: Shoots rapid through the frame! | ||||||||
Good verse most good, and bad verse then seems better Recceived from absent friend by way of Letter. For what so sweet can laboured lays impart As one rude rhyme warm from a friendly heart? ANON. Nor travels my meandering eye The starry wilderness on high; Nor now with curious sight I mark the glow-worm, as I pass, Move with 'green radiance' through the grass, An emerald of light. O ever present to my view! My wafted spirit is with you, And soothes your boding fears: I see you all oppressed with gloom Sit lonely in that cheerless room -- Ah me! You are in tears! Beloved Woman! did you fly Chilled Friendship's dark disliking eye, Or Mirth's untimely din? With cruel weight these trifles press A temper sore with tenderness, When aches the Void within. But why with sable wand unblest Should Fancy rouse within my breast Dim-visaged shapes of Dread? Untenanting its beauteous clay My Sara's soul has winged its way, And hovers round my head! I felt it prompt the tender dream, When slowly sank the day's last gleam; You roused each gentler sense, As sighing o'er the blossom's bloom Meek Evening wakes its soft perfume With viewless influence. And hark, my Love! The sea-breeze moans Through yon reft house! O'er rolling stones In bold ambitious sweep, The onward-surging tides supply The silence of the cloudless sky With mimic thunders deep. Dark reddening from the channelled Isle (Where stands one solitary pile Unslated by the blast) The watchfire, like a sullen star Twinkles to many a dozing tar Rude cradled on the mast. Even there -- beneath that light-house tower -- In the tumultuous evil hour Ere Peace with Sara came, Time was, I should have thought it sweet To count the echoings of my feet, And watch the storm-vexed flame. And there in black soul-jaundiced fit A sad gloom-pampered Man to sit, And listen to the roar: When mountain surges bellowing deep With an uncouth monster leap Plunged foaming on the shore. Then by the lightning's blaze to mark Some toiling tempest-shattered bark; Her vain distress-guns hear; And when a second sheet of light Flashed o'er the blackness of the night -- To see no vessel there! But Fancy now more gaily sings; Or if awhile she droop her wings, As sky-larks 'mid the corn, On summer fields she grounds her breast: The oblivious poppy o'er her nest Nods, till returning morn. O mark those smiling tears, that swell The opened rose! From heaven they fell, And with the sun-beam blend. Blest visitations from above, Such are the tender woes of Love Fostering the heart they bend! When stormy Midnight howling round Beats on our roof with clattering sound, To me your arms you'll stretch: Great God! you'll say -- To us so kind, O shelter from this loud bleak wind The houseless, friendless wretch! The tears that tremble down your cheek, Shall bathe my kisses chaste and meek In Pity's dew divine; And from your heart the sighs that steal Shall make your rising bosom feel The answering swell of mine! How oft, my Love! with shapings sweet I paint the moment, we shall meet! With eager speed I dart -- I seize you in the vacant air, And fancy, with a husband's care I press you to my heart! 'Tis said, in Summer's evening hour Flashes the golden-coloured flower A fair electric flame: And so shall flash my love-charged eye When all the heart's big ecstasy Shoots rapid through the frame! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A DAY DREAM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A THOUGHT SUGGESTED BY A VIEW, OF SADDLEBACK IN CUMBERLAND by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE AN INVOCATION; SONG, FR. REMORSE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE AN ODE TO THE RAIN by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE ANSWER TO A CHILD'S QUESTION by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE COLOGNE; EPIGRAM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE DEJECTION: AN ODE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE DUTY SURVIVING SELF-LOVE; THE ONLY SURE FRIEND OF DECLINING LIFE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE EPITAPH ON HIMSELF by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE FANCY IN NUBIBUS; OR, THE POET IN THE CLOUDS by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |
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