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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A FRIEND, WHO HAD DECLARED INTENTION OF WRITING NO MORE POETRY, by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Dear charles! Whilst yet thou wert a babe, I ween Last Line: The illustrious brow of scotch nobility! Subject(s): Lamb, Charles (1775-1834) | |||
Dear Charles! whilst yet thou wert a babe, I ween That Genius plung'd thee in that wizard fount Hight Castalie: and (sureties of thy faith) That Pity and Simplicity stood by, And promis'd for thee, that thou shouldst renounce The world's low cares and lying vanities, Steadfast and rooted in the heavenly Muse, And wash'd and sanctified to Poesy. Yes -- thou wert plung'd, but with forgetful hand Held, as by Thetis erst her warrior son: And with those recreant unbaptized heels Thou'rt flying from thy bounden minist'ries -- So sore it seems and burthensome a task To weave unwithering flowers! But take thou heed: For thou art vulnerable, wild-eyed boy, And I have arrows mystically dipped Such as may stop thy speed. Is thy Burns dead? And shall he die unwept, and sink to earth 'Without the meed of one melodious tear'? Thy Burns, and Nature's own beloved bard, Who to the 'Illustrious of his native Land So properly did look for patronage.' Ghost of Maecenas! hide thy blushing face! They snatch'd him from the sickle and the plough -- To gauge ale-firkins. Oh! for shame return! On a bleak rock, midway the Aonian mount, There stands a lone and melancholy tree, Whose aged branches to the midnight blast Make solemn music: pluck its darkest bough, Ere yet the unwholesome night-dew be exhaled, And weeping wreath it round thy Poet's tomb. Then in the outskirts, where pollutions grow, Pick the rank henbane and the dusky flowers Of night-shade, or its red and tempting fruit, These with stopped nostril and glove-guarded hand Knit in nice intertexture, so to twine, The illustrious brow of Scotch Nobility! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHARLES LAMB by PAKENHAM THOMAS BEATTY NOCTES AMBROSIANAE by DOROTHEA FRANCES (CANFIELD) FISHER LINES ON THE DEATH OF CHARLES LAMB by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR TO THE SISTER OF ELIA by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR SONNET TO CHARLES LAMB by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES CHARLES AND MARY (DECEMBER 27, 1834) by CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON MORLEY VERSES TO THE MEMORY OF A CHILD NAMED AFTER CHARLES LAMB by THOMAS NOON TALFOURD WRITTEN AFTER THE DEATH OF CHARLES LAMB by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ALL, ALL ARE GONE, THE OLD FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS by OGDEN NASH 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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