by Coleridge · Cluster: Sea · Water
Abstract
A joyful lyric greeting the ocean after long absence, defying the physician’s warning of death and affirming health, hope, divine indwelling and the deathlessness of love.
Connections
Motifs: Sea, Memory Themes & Concepts: Joy, Faith, Wonder and Gratitude Forms & Genres: Ode, Lyric Settings: Sea (2)
Testo integrale / Full text
God be with thee, gladsome Ocean!
How gladly greet I thee once more!
Ships and waves, and ceaseless motion,
And men rejoicing on thy shore.
Dissuading spake the mild Physician, 5
‘Those briny waves for thee are Death!’
But my soul fulfilled her mission,
And lo! I breathe untroubled breath!
Fashion’s pining sons and daughters,
That seek the crowd they seem to fly, 10
Trembling they approach thy waters;
And what cares Nature, if they die?
Me a thousand hopes and pleasures
A thousand recollections bland,
Thoughts sublime, and stately measures, 15
Revisit on thy echoing strand:
Dreams (the Soul herself forsaking),
Tearful raptures, boyish mirth;
Silent adorations, making
A blessed shadow of this Earth! 20
O ye hopes, that stir within me,
Health comes with you from above!
God is with me, God is in me!
I cannot die, if Life be Love.
August, 1801.