by Coleridge · Cluster: Death · Silence · Bells
Abstract
A spell-song from the play Remorse invoking a spirit, with chapel masses, a tolling knell and a moonlit sea. Themes: the supernatural, death, religion.
Connections
Motifs: Supernatural, Death, Bells, Sea, Moon Themes & Concepts: Faith Forms & Genres: Comic Verse Song Historical References: Catholic Church
Testo integrale / Full text
FROM REMORSE
[Act III, Scene i. ll. 69-82.]
Hear, sweet Spirit, hear the spell,
Lest a blacker charm compel!
So shall the midnight breezes swell
With thy deep long-lingering knell.
And at evening evermore, 5
In a chapel on the shore,
Shall the chaunter, sad and saintly,
Yellow tapers burning faintly,
Doleful masses chaunt for thee,
Miserere Domine! 10
Hush! the cadence dies away
On the quiet moonlight sea:
The boatmen rest their oars and say,
Miserere Domine!
1812.