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Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Quotes

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Famous Samuel Taylor Coleridge Quotes

“All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair— The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing— And Winter, slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing. Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow, Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow. Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may, For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away! With lips unbrighten'd, wreathless brow, I stroll: And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul? Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live. - Work without Hope”

PoetryHopeNatureSpringWinter
Book:The Complete Poems
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“Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be; And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea! All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun, at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the Moon. Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.”

PoetryOcean
Book:The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems
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“The spirit of poetry, like all other living powers, must of necessity circumscribe itself by rules, were it only to unite power with beauty.”

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Book:Shakespeare, With Introductory Matter on Poetry, The Drama, and The Stage by S.T. Coleridge: Coleridge’s Essays and Lectures on Shakespeare and Other Old Poets and Dramatists
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“The definition of good prose is proper words in their proper places; of good verse, the most proper words in their proper places.The propriety is in either case relative. The words in prose ought to express the intended meaning, and no more; if they attract attention to themselves, it is, in general, a fault.”

IfsPoetryAttentionCasesPoetOughtFaultsDefinitionsProseRelativeVersesPropriety
Book:Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge: In Two Volumes
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“Poetry, even that of the loftiest, and seemingly, that of the wildest odes, [has] a logic of its own as severe as that of science; and more difficult, because more subtle, more complex, and dependent on more and more fugitive causes. In the truly great poets... there is a reason assignable, not only for every word, but for the position of every word.”

ReasonPoetryCausesDifficultPositionPoetLogicComplexesDependentSubtleSevereGreat PoetFugitiveOdes
Book:Biographia Literaria, Or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions
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