Analysis of To A Young Lady, With A Poem On The French Revolution
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 (Ottery St Mary) – 1834 (Highgate)
Much on my early youth I love to dwell,
Ere yet I bade that friendly dome farewell,
Where first, beneath the echoing cloisters, pale,
I heard of guilt and wondered at the tale!
Yet tho' the hours flew by on careless wing,
Full heavily of sorrow would I sing.
Aye as the star of evening flung its beam
In broken radiance on the wavy stream,
My soul amid the pensive twilight gloom
Mourned with the breeze, O, Lee Boo! o'er thy tomb.
Where'er I wanderd, pity still was near,
Breathed from the heart and glistened in the tear:
No knell that tolled, but filled my anxious eye,
And suffering nature wept that one should die!
Thus to sad sympathies I soothed my breast,
Calm, as the rainbow in the weeping west:
When slumb'ring freedom roused by high disdain
With giant fury burst her triple chain!
Fierce on her front the blasting dog-star glowed;
Her banners like a midnight meteor flowed;
Amid the yelling of the storm-rent skies
She came, and scattered battles from her eyes!
Then exultation waked the patriot fire
And swept with wilder hand the Alcaean lyre:
Red from the tyrant's wound I shook the lance,
And strode in joy the reeking plains of France!
Fall'n is th' oppressor, friendless, ghastly, low,
And my heart aches tho' mercy struck the blow.
With wearied thought once more I see the shade,
Where peaceful virtue weaves the myrtle braid.
And O! if eyes, whose holy glances roll,
Swift messengers, and eloquent of soul;
If smiles more winning, and a gentler mien,
Than the love-wildered maniac's brain hath seen
Shaping celestial forms in vacant air,
If these demand th' impassioned poet's care--
If mirth, and softened sense, and wit refined,
The blameless features of a lovely mind;
Then haply shall my trembling hand assign
No fading wreath beauty's saintly shrine.
Nor, Sara! thou these early flowers refuse----
Ne'er lurked the snake beneath their simple hues,
No purple bloom the child of nature brings
From flatt'ry's night-shade: as he feels, he sings.
Sept. 1794.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEXFGG HHIIJJKKXXLLMMNNOOPPFFQQRRSSTTX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011111 111111011 11010100101 1111010101 11010111101 1100110111 1101110111 01010010101 110101011 11011111011 101110111 1101010001 1111111101 01001011111 1111001111 110100101 111011101 1101010101 1101010111 0101011001 0101010111 1101010101 111010010 011101011 110111101 0101010111 111110101101 0111110101 1101111101 1101010101 0111110101 1100010011 1111000101 10111111 1001010101 110111010101 1101010101 0101010101 1111100101 11011101 11011101001 1101011101 1101011101 111111111 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,946 |
Words | 344 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 31 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 778 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 171 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 09, 2023
- 1:46 min read
- 135 Views
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"To A Young Lady, With A Poem On The French Revolution" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34382/to-a-young-lady%2C-with-a-poem-on-the-french-revolution>.
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