Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1772 - 1834

 

First Lines of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A lovely form there sate beside my bed,A sunny shaft did I behold,All look and likeness caught from earth,All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair --All thoughts, all passions, all delights,At midnight by the stream I roved,But tell me, tell me! speak again,Child of my muse! in Barbour's gentle handCome hither, gently rowing,Do you ask what the birds say? The Sparrow, the Dove,Encinctured with a twine of leaves,Hear, my beloved, an old Milesian story! --How warm this woodland wild recess!I fear thee, ancient Mariner!I Love, and he loves me again,If I had but two little wingsIn Xanadu did Kubla KhanIt is an ancient Mariner,It may indeed be phantasy when IMy eyes make pictures, when they are shut:Never, believe me,O Fair is Love's first hope to gentle mind!O! It is pleasant, with a heart at ease,Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing,On stern Blencartha's perilous heightOn the wide level of a mountain's head,Resembles life what once was deem'd of light,She gave with joy her virgin breast;Stop, Christian passer-by! -- Stop, child of God,Sweet flower! that peeping from thy russet stemTell me, on what holy groundThe cloud doth gather, the greenwood roar,The hour-bell sounds, and I must go;The shepherds went their hasty way,The Sun now rose upon the right:There passed a weary time. Each throatThis be the meed, that thy song creates a thousand-fold echo!This Hermit good lives in that woodTranquillity! thou better nameUnchanged within, to see all changed without,Underneath a huge oak treeUnperishing youth!Up, up! ye dames, and lasses gay!Upon the mountain's edge with light touch resting,Verse, a breeze mid blossoms straying,When thou to my true-love com'stWhere is the grave of Sir Arthur O'Kellyn?While my young cheek retains its healthful hues,Why need I say, Louisa dear!Yet art thou happier far than she