by Coleridge · Cluster: Unrequited Frustrated Love · Unattainable Beloved · Petrarchan Sonnet
Abstract
Love-lyric (after Cotton) of a soldier valuing true inward love over wealth and birth, unable to bear parting from Asra. Themes of love, separation and inward worth versus outward form.
Connections
Archetypes: Lover Motifs: Swords and Weapons Themes & Concepts: Romantic Love, Grief and Loss, Appearance vs Reality Forms & Genres: Comic Verse Song
Testo integrale / Full text
A sworded man whose trade is blood,
In grief, in anger, and in fear,
Thro’ jungle, swamp, and torrent flood,
I seek the wealth you hold so dear!
The dazzling charm of outward form, 5
The power of gold, the pride of birth,
Have taken Woman’s heart by storm —
Usurp’d the place of inward worth.
Is not true Love of higher price
Than outward Form, though fair to see, 10
Wealth’s glittering fairy-dome of ice,
Or echo of proud ancestry? —
O! Asra, Asra! couldst
thou
see
Into the bottom of my heart,
There’s such a mine of Love for thee, 15
As almost might supply desert!
(This separation is, alas!
Too great a punishment to bear;
O! take my life, or let me pass
That life, that happy life, with her!) 20
The perils, erst with steadfast eye
Encounter’d, now I shrink to see —
Oh! I have heart enough to die —
Not half enough to part from Thee!
? 1805.