by Coleridge · Cluster: Satire of Society · Epigram · Satire
Abstract
A satirical imitation of Aristophanes’ Clouds on the ‘glittering Vapors’ that feed sophists’ fluent speech, plus a fragment on man rushing through infinite space; mocks empty eloquence.
Connections
Motifs: Fog and Smoke Themes & Concepts: Satire of Society, Appearance vs Reality Forms & Genres: Satire Historical References: Ancient Greece, Greek Mythology
Testo integrale / Full text
(Nubes 315, 317.)
¼µ³q»±¹ ¸µ±v ½´Áqù½ Á³¿ÖÂ,
±5ÀµÁ ³½}¼·½ º±v ´¹q»µ¾¹½ º±v ½¿æ½ !¼Ö½ À±ÁsÇ¿Åù
º±v ĵÁ±Äµw±½ º±v ÀµÁw»µ¾¹½ º±v ºÁ¿æù½ º±v º±Ä±»·È¹½.
For the ancients … had their glittering VAPORS, which (as the comic
poet tells us) fed a host of sophists.
Great goddesses are they to lazy folks,
Who pour down on us gifts of fluent speech,
Sense most sententious, wonderful fine effect,
And how to talk about it and about it,
Thoughts brisk as bees, and pathos soft and thawy.
1817. First published in The Friend, 1818, iii. 179; 1850, iii. 138.
First collected 1893.
Let clumps of earth, however glorified,
Roll round and round and still renew their cycle —
Man rushes like a winged Cherub through
The infinite space, and that which has been
Can therefore never be again ——
1820. First published from an MS. in 1893.