by Coleridge · Cluster: Imagination · Fragment · Heroic Couplet
Abstract
A metrical ‘nonsense’ experiment in dactylic/anapaestic measure singing of Mohammed’s story, toil, glory and a merry march to death; prosody as the real subject.
Connections
Motifs: Death Themes & Concepts: Heroism Forms & Genres: Fragment, Comic Verse Song Historical References: Eastern Religion Comparative Religion
Testo integrale / Full text
Sing impassionate Soul! of Mohammed the complicate story:
Sing, unfearful of Man, groaning and ending in care.
Short the Command and the Toil, but endlessly mighty the Glory!
Standing aloof if it chance, vainly our enemy’s scare:
What tho’ we wretchedly fare, wearily drawing the Breath — ,
Malice in wonder may stare; merrily move we to Death.
Now first published from an MS.