by Coleridge · Cluster: Grief and Loss · Elegy · Clothing and Costume
Abstract
A sonnet of mourning recalling the poet’s dead sister’s gentle virtues, prompted by the sight of another youth’s sisterly welcome, finding bitter comfort that for her the grave is peace.
Connections
Motifs: Death, Memory, Grave Themes & Concepts: Grief and Loss, Melancholy Forms & Genres: Sonnet
Testo integrale / Full text
I too a sister had! too cruel Death!
How sad Remembrance bids my bosom heave!
Tranquil her soul, as sleeping Infant’s breath;
Meek were her manners as a vernal Eve.
Knowledge, that frequent lifts the bloated mind, 5
Gave her the treasure of a lowly breast,
And Wit to venom’d Malice oft assign’d,
Dwelt in her bosom in a Turtle’s nest.
Cease, busy Memory! cease to urge the dart;
Nor on my soul her love to me impress! 10
For oh I mourn in anguish — and my heart
Feels the keen pang, th’ unutterable distress.
Yet wherefore grieve I that her sorrows cease,
For Life was misery, and the Grave is Peace!
1791.