by Coleridge · Cluster: Grace and Redemption · Humility · Bread and Wine Eucharist
Abstract
A moral-religious poem on forgiving wrongs with humility, drawing on 1 Corinthians 13, with imagery of inner darkness and self-kindled spite.
Connections
Motifs: Light and Dark, Fire Themes & Concepts: Forgiveness, Humility, Conscience Historical References: Bible
Testo integrale / Full text
Beareth all things. — 1 COR. xiii. 7.
Gently I took that which ungently came,
And without scorn forgave: — Do thou the same.
A wrong done to thee think a cat’s-eye spark
Thou wouldst not see, were not thine own heart dark.
Thine own keen sense of wrong that thirsts for sin, 5
Fear that — the spark self-kindled from within,
Which blown upon will blind thee with its glare,
Or smother’d stifle thee with noisome air.
Clap on the extinguisher, pull up the blinds,
And soon the ventilated spirit finds 10
Its natural daylight. If a foe have kenn’d,
Or worse than foe, an alienated friend,
A rib of dry rot in thy ship’s stout side,
Think it God’s message, and in humble pride
With heart of oak replace it; — thine the gains — 15
Give him the rotten timber for his pains!
? 1832.