by Coleridge · Cluster: Martyrdom · Martyr Saint · Cross
Abstract
A sonnet of compassion for a freezing old beggar, offering garment and shelter in imitation of the merciful Christ who befriended the Lazars; themes of pity, poverty, and Christian charity.
Connections
Themes & Concepts: Poverty, Social Injustice, Grace and Redemption Forms & Genres: Sonnet Historical References: Bible Characters: Christ
Testo integrale / Full text
Sweet Mercy! how my very heart has bled
To see thee, poor Old Man! and thy grey hairs
Hoar with the snowy blast: while no one cares
To clothe thy shrivell’d limbs and palsied head.
My Father! throw away this tatter’d vest 5
That mocks thy shivering! take my garment — use
A young man’s arm! I’ll melt these frozen dews
That hang from thy white beard and numb thy breast.
My Sara too shall tend thee, like a child:
And thou shalt talk, in our fireside’s recess, 10
Of purple Pride, that scowls on Wretchedness —
He did not so, the Galilaean mild,
Who met the Lazars turn’d from rich men’s doors
And call’d them Friends, and heal’d their noisome sores!
? 1795.