by Coleridge · Cluster: Unrequited Frustrated Love · Unattainable Beloved · Petrarchan Sonnet
Abstract
A dialogue lyric in which the Poet declares Love dead and buried in the lady’s bosom, dead of a decline. Themes: love’s death, transience, melancholy.
Connections
Motifs: Grave Themes & Concepts: Unrequited Frustrated Love, Transience, Melancholy, Romantic Love Forms & Genres: Lyric
Testo integrale / Full text
Lady. If Love be dead —
Poet. And I aver it!
Lady. Tell me, Bard! where Love lies buried?
Poet. Love lies buried where ‘twas born:
Oh, gentle dame! think it no scorn 5
If, in my fancy, I presume
To call thy bosom poor Love’s Tomb.
And on that tomb to read the line: —
‘Here lies a Love that once seem’d mine,
But caught a chill, as I divine, 10
And died at length of a Decline.’
1828.