by Coleridge · Cluster: Satire of Society · Epigram · Satire
Abstract
A literary-satirical epigram mocking the Laureate Pye’s ‘Carmen Seculare’ as eternal because incomprehensible and ‘without head or tail.‘
Connections
Themes & Concepts: Literary Criticism (2), Satire of Society, Vanity Forms & Genres: Epigram
Testo integrale / Full text
On his Carmen Seculare (a title which has by various persons who have
heard it, been thus translated, ‘A Poem an age long’).
Your poem must eternal be,
Eternal! it can’t fail,
For ‘tis incomprehensible,
And without head or tail!
First published in Morning Post, Jan. 24, 1800. Included in
Keepsake, 1829, p. 277. First collected P. and D. W., ii. 161.