The Mind

Fragment: His own fair countenance, his kingly forehead

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772–1834

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

The Mind

His own fair countenance, his kingly forehead,
His tender smiles, Love's day-dawn on his lips,
Put on such heavenly, spiritual light,
At the same moment in his steadfast eye
Were Virtue's native crest, th' innocent soul's
Unconscious meek self-heraldry,--to man
Genial, and pleasant to his guardian angel.
He suffer'd nor complain'd;--though oft with tears
He mourn'd th' oppression of his helpless brethren,--
And sometimes with a deeper holier grief
Mourn'd for the oppressor--but this in sabbath hours--
A solemn grief, that like a cloud at sunset,
Was but the veil of inward meditation
Pierced thro' and saturate with the intellectual rays
It soften'd.

✦ ✦ ✦

1812

MLA

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Fragment: His own fair countenance, his kingly forehead.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/472/.

Chicago

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Fragment: His own fair countenance, his kingly forehead.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/472/.

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