by Coleridge · Cluster: Unrequited Frustrated Love · Unattainable Beloved · Petrarchan Sonnet
Abstract
A sonnet praising Sheridan’s eloquence and wit, ranging from Petrarchan sweetness to patriot rage that scorches the political apostate; themes of eloquence, satire, and patriotism.
Connections
Motifs: Music and Song Themes & Concepts: Artist and Society, Nationalism and Patriotism, Deception Forms & Genres: Sonnet Historical References: Classical Antiquity
Testo integrale / Full text
It was some Spirit, SHERIDAN! that breath’d
O’er thy young mind such wildly-various power!
My soul hath mark’d thee in her shaping hour,
Thy temples with Hymettian flow’rets wreath’d:
And sweet thy voice, as when o’er LAURA’S bier 5
Sad Music trembled thro’ Vauclusa’s glade;
Sweet, as at dawn the love-lorn Serenade
That wafts soft dreams to SLUMBER’S listening ear.
Now patriot Rage and Indignation high
Swell the full tones! And now thine eye-beams dance 10
Meanings of Scorn and Wit’s quaint revelry!
Writhes inly from the bosom-probing glance
The Apostate by the brainless rout ador’d,
As erst that elder Fiend beneath great Michael’s sword.
January 29, 1795.