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Life (Coleridge)

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For works with similar titles, see Life.

Written in 1789, and first published in the collected works of 1834

465405Life1789Samuel Taylor Coleridge

As late I journeyed o’er the extensive plain
Where native Otter sports his scanty stream,
Musing in torpid woe a Sister’s pain,
The glorious prospect woke me from the dream.

At every step it widen’d to my sight —
Wood, Meadow, verdant Hill, and dreary Steep,
Following in quick succession of delight, —
Till all — at once — did my eye ravish’d sweep!

May this (I cried) my course through Life portray!
New scenes of Wisdom may each step display,
And Knowledge open as my days advance!
Till what time Death shall pour the undarken’d ray,
My eye shall dart thro’ infinite expanse,
And thought suspended lie in Rapture’s blissful trance.

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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