Nature

Mrs. Siddons

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772–1834

From Complete Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (1912)

Nature

As when a child on some long Winter's night
Affrighted clinging to its Grandam's knees
With eager wond'ring and perturb'd delight
Listens strange tales of fearful dark decrees
Muttered to wretch by necromantic spell;
Or of those hags, who at the witching time
Of murky Midnight ride the air sublime,
And mingle foul embrace with fiends of Hell:

Cold Horror drinks its blood! Anon the tear
More gentle starts, to hear the Beldame tell
Of pretty Babes, that lov'd each other dear.
Murder'd by cruel Uncle's mandate fell:

Even such the shiv'ring joys thy tones impart,
Even so thou, SIDDONS! meltest my sad heart!

✦ ✦ ✦

Sonnet VIII. December 29, 1794

MLA

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Mrs. Siddons.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/167/.

Chicago

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Mrs. Siddons.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/167/.

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