by Coleridge · Cluster: Wonder and Gratitude · Sublime · Storm
Abstract
Sonnet to Schiller in awe of the terror and sublimity of his tragedy; the sublime, terror and horror, the artist, and a Gothic dungeon scene.
Connections
Motifs: Storm Themes & Concepts: Sublime, Terror and Horror, Artist and Society, Grotesque Forms & Genres: Sonnet
Testo integrale / Full text
Schiller! that hour I would have wish’d to die,
If thro’ the shuddering midnight I had sent
From the dark dungeon of the Tower time-rent
That fearful voice, a famish’d Father’s cry —
Lest in some after moment aught more mean 5
Might stamp me mortal! A triumphant shout
Black Horror scream’d, and all her goblin rout
Diminish’d shrunk from the more withering scene!
Ah! Bard tremendous in sublimity!
Could I behold thee in thy loftier mood 10
Wandering at eve with finely-frenzied eye
Beneath some vast old tempest-swinging wood!
Awhile with mute awe gazing I would brood:
Then weep aloud in a wild ecstasy!
? 1794.