Duty Surviving Self-Love by Samuel Coleridge

Unchanged within, to see all changed without, Is a blank lot and hard to bear, no doubt. Yet why at others’ Wanings should’st thou fret ? Then only might’st thou feel a just regret, Hadst thou withheld thy love or hid thy light In selfish forethought of neglect and slight. O wiselier then, from feeble […]

Epitaph by Samuel Coleridge

Stop, Christian passer-by : Stop, child of God, And read, with gentle breast. Beneath this sod A poet lies, or that which once seem’d he– O, lift one thought in prayer for S. T. C.– That he who many a year with toil of breath Found death in life, may here find life in death […]

Dejection: An Ode by Samuel Coleridge

Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon, With the old Moon in her arms ; And I fear, I fear, My Master dear ! We shall have a deadly storm. Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence ————————————————————————— I Well ! If the Bard was weather-wise, who made The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence, […]

About The Nightingale by Samuel Coleridge

From a letter from STC to Wordsworth after writing The Nightingale: In stale blank verse a subject stale I send per post my Nightingale; And like an honest bard, dear Wordsworth, You’ll tell me what you think, my Bird’s worth. My own opinion’s briefly this– His bill he opens not amiss; And when he has […]

Fears In Solitude by Samuel Coleridge

A green and silent spot, amid the hills, A small and silent dell ! O’er stiller place No singing sky-lark ever poised himself. The hills are heathy, save that swelling slope, Which hath a gay and gorgeous covering on, All golden with the never-bloomless furze, Which now blooms most profusely : but the dell, Bathed […]

Christabel by Samuel Coleridge

PART I ‘Tis the middle of night by the castle clock And the owls have awakened the crowing cock; Tu-whit!- Tu-whoo! And hark, again! the crowing cock, How drowsily it crew. Sir Leoline, the Baron rich, Hath a toothless mastiff, which From her kennel beneath the rock Maketh answer to the clock, Four for the […]

Epigram by Samuel Coleridge

Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry […]

Phantom by Samuel Coleridge

All look and likeness caught from earth All accident of kin and birth, Had pass’d away. There was no trace Of aught on that illumined face, Uprais’d beneath the rifted stone But of one spirit all her own ;– She, she herself, and only she, Shone through her body visibly. ————— The End And that’s […]

A Mathematical Problem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This is now–this was erst, Proposition the first–and Problem the first. I. On a given finite Line Which must no way incline; To describe an equi– –lateral Tri– –A, N, G, L, E. Now let A. B. Be the given line Which must no way incline; The great Mathematician Makes this Requisition, That we describe […]

Fire, Famine, And Slaughter : A War Eclogue by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Scene a desolate Tract in la Vendee. Famine is discovered lying on the ground; to her enter Fire and Slaughter. Fam. Sister! sisters! who sent you here? Slau. [to Fire.] I will whisper it in her ear. Fire. No! no! no! Spirits hear what spirits tell: ‘Twill make a holiday in Hell. No! no! […]

Fancy In Nubibus, Or The Poet In The Clouds by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

O! it is pleasant with a heart at ease, Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies, To make the shifting clouds be what you please, Or let the easily persuaded eyes Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould Of a friend’s fancy; or with head bent low And cheek aslant see rivers flow of […]

Epitaph On An Infant. by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Its balmy lips the infant blest Relaxing from its mother’s breast, How sweet it heaves the happy sigh Of innocent satiety! And such my infant’s latest sigh! Oh tell, rude stone! the passer by, That here the pretty babe doth lie, Death sang to sleep with Lullaby. ————— The End And that’s the End of […]

Domestic Peace by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Tell me, on what holy ground May domestic peace be found? Halcyon daughter of the skies, Far on fearful wing she flies, From the pomp of scepter’d state, From the rebel’s noisy hate. In a cottaged vale she dwells List’ning to the Sabbath bells! Still around her steps are seen, Spotless honor’s meeker mien, Love, […]

Despair by Samuel Coleridge

I have experienc’d The worst, the World can wreak on me–the worst That can make Life indifferent, yet disturb With whisper’d Discontents the dying prayer– I have beheld the whole of all, wherein My Heart had any interest in this Life, To be disrent and torn from off my Hopes That nothing now is left. […]

Desire by Samuel Coleridge

Where true Love burns Desire is Love’s pure flame; It is the reflex of our earthly frame, That takes its meaning from the nobler part, And but translates the language of the heart. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the […]

A Day Dream by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

My eyes make pictures when they’re shut:– I see a fountain large and fair, A Willow and a ruined Hut, And thee, and me, and Mary there. O Mary! make thy gentle lap our pillow! Bend o’er us, like a bower, my beautiful green Willow! A wild-rose roofs the ruined shed, And that and summer […]

Come, come thou bleak December wind (fragment) by Samuel Coleridge

Come, come thou bleak December wind, And blow the dry leaves from the tree! Flash, like a Love-thought, thro’ me, Death And take a Life that wearies me. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. […]

A Christmas Carol by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I. The shepherds went their hasty way, And found the lowly stable-shed Where the Virgin-Mother lay: And now they checked their eager tread, For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung, A Mother’s song the Virgin-Mother sung. II. They told her how a glorious light, Streaming from a heavenly throng. Around them shone, suspending […]

A Child’s Evening Prayer by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Ere on my bed my limbs I lay, God grant me grace my prayers to say: O God! preserve my mother dear In strength and health for many a year; And, O! preserve my father too, And may I pay him reverence due; And may I my best thoughts employ To be my parents’ hope […]

Aplolgia Pro Vita Sua by Samuel Coleridge

The poet in his lone yet genial hour Gives to his eyes a magnifying power : Or rather he emancipates his eyes From the black shapeless accidents of size– In unctuous cones of kindling coal, Or smoke upwreathing from the pipe’s trim bole, His gifted ken can see Phantoms of sublimity. ————— The End And […]

Answer To A Child’s Question by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Do you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove, The linnet, and thrush say, ‘I love and I love!’ In the winter they’re silent, the wind is so strong; What it says I don’t know, but it sings a loud song. But green leaves and blossoms, and sunny warm weather, And singing, and […]

A Soliloquy Of The Full Moon, She Being In A Mad Passion by Samuel Coleridge

Now as Heaven is my Lot, they’re the Pests of the Nation! Wherever they can come With clankum and blankum ‘Tis all Botheration, & Hell & Damnation, With fun, jeering Conjuring Sky-staring, Loungering, And still to the tune of Transmogrification– Those muttering Spluttering Ventriloquogusty Poets With no Hats Or Hats that are rusty. They’re my […]

The Resignation by Thomas Chatterton

The Resignation by Thomas Chatterton O God, whose thunder shakes the sky, Whose eye this atom globe surveys, To thee, my only rock, I fly, Thy mercy in thy justice praise. The mystic mazes of thy will, The shadows of celestial light, Are past the pow’r of human skill,– But what th’ Eternal acts is […]

The Methodist by Thomas Chatterton

The Methodist by Thomas Chatterton Says Tom to Jack, ’tis very odd, These representatives of God, In color, way of life and evil, Should be so very like the devil. Jack, understand, was one of those, Who mould religion in the rose, A red hot methodist; his face Was full of puritanic grace, His loose […]

The Death of Nicou by Thomas Chatterton

The Death of Nicou by Thomas Chatterton On Tiber’s banks, Tiber, whose waters glide In slow meanders down to Gaigra’s side; And circling all the horrid mountain round, Rushes impetuous to the deep profound; Rolls o’er the ragged rocks with hideous yell; Collects its waves beneath the earth’s vast shell; There for a while in […]

The Copernican System by Thomas Chatterton

The Copernican System by Thomas Chatterton The Sun revolving on his axis turns, And with creative fire intensely burns; Impell’d by forcive air, our Earth supreme, Rolls with the planets round the solar gleam. First Mercury completes his transient year, Glowing, refulgent, with reflected glare; Bright Venus occupies a wider way, The early harbinger of […]

The Advice by Thomas Chatterton

The Advice by Thomas Chatterton Revolving in their destin’d sphere, The hours begin another year As rapidly to fly; Ah! think, Maria, (e’er in grey Those auburn tresses fade away So youth and beauty die. Tho’ now the captivating throng Adore with flattery and song, And all before you bow; Whilst unattentive to the strain, […]

Song from Aella by Thomas Chatterton

Song from Aella by Thomas Chatterton O SING unto my roundelay, O drop the briny tear with me; Dance no more at holyday, Like a running river be: My love is dead, Gone to his death-bed All under the willow-tree. Black his cryne as the winter night, White his rode as the summer snow, Red […]

Sly Dick by Thomas Chatterton

Sly Dick by Thomas Chatterton Sharp was the frost, the wind was high And sparkling stars bedeckt the sky Sly Dick in arts of cunning skill’d, Whose rapine all his pockets fill’d, Had laid him down to take his rest And soothe with sleep his anxious breast. ‘Twas thus a dark infernal sprite A native […]

Narva and Mored by Thomas Chatterton

Narva and Mored by Thomas Chatterton Recite the loves of Narva and Mored The priest of Chalma’s triple idol said. High from the ground the youthful warriors sprung, Loud on the concave shell the lances rung: In all the mystic mazes of the dance, The youths of Banny’s burning sands advance, Whilst the soft virgin […]

Heccar and Gaira by Thomas Chatterton

Heccar and Gaira by Thomas Chatterton Where the rough Caigra rolls the surgy wave, Urging his thunders thro’ the echoing cave; Where the sharp rocks, in distant horror seen, Drive the white currents thro’ the spreading green; Where the loud tiger, pawing in his rage, Bids the black archers of the wilds engage; Stretch’d on […]

February by Thomas Chatterton

February by Thomas Chatterton Begin, my muse, the imitative lay, Aonian doxies sound the thrumming string; Attempt no number of the plaintive Gay, Let me like midnight cats, or Collins sing. If in the trammels of the doleful line The bounding hail, or drilling rain descend; Come, brooding Melancholy, pow’r divine, And ev’ry unform’d mass […]

Eclogues by Thomas Chatterton

Eclogues by Thomas Chatterton Eclogue the First. Whanne Englonde, smeethynge from her lethal wounde, From her galled necke dyd twytte the chayne awaie, Kennynge her legeful sonnes falle all arounde, (Myghtie theie fell, ’twas Honoure ledde the fraie,) Thanne inne a dale, bie eve’s dark surcote graie, Twayne lonelie shepsterres dyd abrodden flie, (The rostlyng […]

Colin Instructed by Thomas Chatterton

Colin Instructed by Thomas Chatterton Young Colin was as stout a boy As ever gave a maiden joy; But long in vain he told his tale To black-eyed Biddy of the Dale. Ah why, the whining shepherd cried, Am I alone your smiles denied? I only tell in vain my tale To black-eyed Biddy of […]

A New Song by Thomas Chatterton

A New Song by Thomas Chatterton Ah blame me not, Catcott, if from the right way My notions and actions run far. How can my ideas do other but stray, Deprived of their ruling North-Star? A blame me not, Broderip, if mounted aloft, I chatter and spoil the dull air; How can I imagine thy […]

A Hymn for Christmas Day by Thomas Chatterton

A Hymn for Christmas Day by Thomas Chatterton Almighty Framer of the Skies! O let our pure devotion rise, Like Incense in thy Sight! Wrapt in impenetrable Shade The Texture of our Souls were made Till thy Command gave light. The Sun of Glory gleam’d the Ray, Refin’d the Darkness into Day, And bid the […]

The Spring by Thomas Carew

The Spring by Thomas Carew Now that the winter’s gone, the earth hath lost Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream Upon the silver lake or crystal stream; But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth, And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth To […]