Nature

Catullian Hendecasyllables

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772–1834

From Poems of Coleridge, selected by Arthur Symons (1905)

Nature

Hear, my beloved, an old Milesian story!--
High, and embosom'd in congregated laurels,
Glimmer'd a temple upon a breezy headland;
In the dim distance amid the skiey billows
Rose a fair island; the god of flocks had blest it.
From the far shores of the bleat-resounding island
Oft by the moonlight a little boat came floating,
Came to the sea-cave beneath the breezy headland,
Where amid myrtles a pathway stole in mazes
Up to the groves of the high embosom'd temple.
There in a thicket of dedicated roses,
Oft did a priestess, as lovely as a vision,
Pouring her soul to the son of Cytherea,
Pray him to hover around the slight canoe-boat,
And with invisible pilotage to guide it
Over the dusk wave, until the nightly sailor
Shivering with ecstasy sank upon her bosom.

MLA

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Catullian Hendecasyllables.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/79/.

Chicago

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Catullian Hendecasyllables.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/79/.

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