The piteous sobs that choke the Virgin's breath
For him, the fair betrothed Youth, who les
Cold in the narrow dwelling, or the cries
With which a Mother wails her Darling's death,
These from our Nature's common impulse spring
Unblamed, unpraised; but o'er the piled earth,
Which hides the sheeted corse of gray-haired Worth,
If droops the soaring Youth with slackened wing;
If he recall in saddest minstrelsy
Each tenderness bestowed, each truth impressed;
Such Grief is Reason, Virtue, Piety!
And from the Almighty Father shall descend
Comforts on his late Evening, whose young breast
Mourns with no transient love the aged friend.
More verses by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- The Blossing Of The Solitary Date-Tree
- In The Manner Of Spenser
- The Blossoming Of The Solitary Date-Tree. A Lament
- When Hope But Made Tranquillity Be Felt (Fragment)
- Ode To The Departing Year