by Coleridge · Cluster: Memory and Time · Memory · Nostalgia
Abstract
A sonnet to Southey whose melodies wake memory and hope; dwells on the bittersweet pleasure of recollected past delight; themes of memory, friendship, and poetry.
Connections
Motifs: Memory Themes & Concepts: Memory and Time, Nostalgia, Friendship, Artist and Society Forms & Genres: Sonnet
Testo integrale / Full text
SOUTHEY! thy
melodies
steal
o’er
mine
ear
Like far-off joyance, or the murmuring
Of wild bees in the sunny showers of Spring —
Sounds of such mingled import as may cheer
The lonely breast, yet rouse a mindful tear: 5
Wak’d by the Song doth Hope-born FANCY fling
Rich showers of dewy fragrance from her wing,
Till sickly PASSION’S drooping Myrtles sear
Blossom anew! But O! more thrill’d, I prize
Thy sadder strains, that bid in MEMORY’S Dream 10
The faded forms of past Delight arise;
Then soft, on Love’s pale cheek, the tearful gleam
Of Pleasure smiles — as faint yet beauteous lies
The imag’d Rainbow on a willowy stream.
January 14, 1795.