Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey by Joseph Cottle
page 142 of 568 (25%)
page 142 of 568 (25%)
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THE ENGLISH DUODECASYLLABLE. This consists of two dactyls, and three trochees; the two dactyls first; and the trochees following. Hear, my beloved! an old Milesian story; High and embosomed in congregated laurels, Glimmered a temple, upon a breezy headland In the dim distance, amid the skyey billows, Rose a fair island; the God of flocks had blest it: From the dim shores of this bleak resounding island, Oft in the moon-light a little boat came floating, Came to the sea-cave beneath the breezy headland, Where between myrtles a path-way stole in mazes, Up to the groves of the high embosomed temple. There in a thicket of consecrated roses, Oft did a Priestess, as lovely as a vision, Pouring her soul to the son of Cytherea, Pray him to hover around the light canoe boat, And with invisible pilotage to guide it Over the dusky waves, till the nightly sailor Shiv'ring with ecstacy sank upon her bosom. Now, by the immortals! he was a beauteous stripling, Worthy to dream the sweet dream of young Endymion." In the last edition of Mr. Coleridge's poems, (3 vols., 1835) there is a poem, called "The Destiny of Nations, a Vision;"--a sounding title, with which the contents but ill accord. No note conveys information to the |
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