by Coleridge · Cluster: Transience · Decay · Carpe Diem
Abstract
Donne verse-letter used as a motto for The Friend, figuring the body’s morning, noon and night and the soul as a ‘larger guest’ to whom sun and moon are mere sparks; meditation on mortality and the soul.
Connections
Topoi: Seven Ages of Man Motifs: Sun, Light and Dark Themes & Concepts: Mortality, Self-Knowledge, Transience
Testo integrale / Full text
Stanzas II, III, IV, and a few words from Stanza V, are prefixed as the
motto to Essay XV of The Friend, 1818, i. 179; 1850, i. 136.
For Stanza II, line 3 —
But he which dwells there is not so; for he
With him who dwells there ‘tis not so; for he
For Stanza III —
So had your body her morning, hath her noon,
And shall not better, her next change is night:
But her fair larger guest, t’whom sun and moon
Are sparks, and short liv’d, claims another right. —
The motto reads:
Our bodies had their morning, have their noon,
And shall not better — the next change is night,
But their fair larger guest, t’whom sun and moon
Are sparks and short liv’d, claims another right.
The alteration was first noted in 1837. In 1850 line 3 of Stanza III
‘fair’ is misprinted ‘far’.