Poems List

O Lady! we receive but what we give,

And in our life alone does Nature live.

3

I counted two and seventy stenches, All well defined, and several stinks.

Cologne [1828]

A poet lies, or that which once seemed he— Oh, lift a 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.

Epitaph written for himself [1833]

2

Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live.

Work Without Hope, l. 13

2

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair— The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing— And Winter slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! And I the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

Work Without Hope [February 21, 1825], l. 1

2

With Donne, whose muse on dromedary trots, Wreathe iron pokers into true-love knots.

On Donne’s Poetry [c. 1818]

2

Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like; Friendship is a sheltering tree.

Youth and Age [1823–1832], st. 2

1

Joy is the sweet voice, joy the luminous cloud— We in ourselves rejoice! And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight, All melodies the echoes of that voice, All colors a suffusion from that light.

Dejection: An Ode, st. 5

Trochee trips from long to short; From long to long in solemn sort Slow Spondee stalks.

Metrical Feet [1806]

2

A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud Enveloping the earth.

Dejection: An Ode, st. 4

2

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a seminal figure in English literature, a poet, literary critic, and philosopher who played a crucial role in the development of Romanticism. Born in Ottery St Mary, Devon, in 1772, his poetic work, notably "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan", is celebrated for its vivid imagination and ethereal lyricism. Coleridge was also an influential literary critic, whose ideas on imagination and the relationship between the poet and nature shaped later literary theory. He collaborated with William Wordsworth on the publication "Lyrical Ballads", a landmark of Romanticism. His philosophical and theological reflections, though sometimes obscure, reveal a profound and inquisitive mind. His life was marked by health problems and opium addiction, which affected his productivity and stability. Samuel Taylor Coleridge passed away in 1834, leaving a lasting legacy in poetry and criticism.