"Full many a thought uncall'd and undetain'd, / And many idle flitting phantasies, / Traverse my indolent and passive brain, / As wild and various as the random gales / That swell and flutter on this subject Lute!"
— Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834)
Date
1796, 1817
Metaphor
"Full many a thought uncall'd and undetain'd, / And many idle flitting phantasies, / Traverse my indolent and passive brain, / As wild and various as the random gales / That swell and flutter on this subject Lute!"
Metaphor in Context
And thus, my Love! as on the midway slope
Of yonder hill I stretch my limbs at noon,
Whilst through my half-clos'd eye-lids I behold
The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main,
And tranquil muse upon tranquillity;
Full many a thought uncall'd and undetain'd,
And many idle flitting phantasies,
Traverse my indolent and passive brain,
As wild and various as the random gales
That swell and flutter on this subject Lute!
(p. 515, ll. 34-43)
Of yonder hill I stretch my limbs at noon,
Whilst through my half-clos'd eye-lids I behold
The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main,
And tranquil muse upon tranquillity;
Full many a thought uncall'd and undetain'd,
And many idle flitting phantasies,
Traverse my indolent and passive brain,
As wild and various as the random gales
That swell and flutter on this subject Lute!
(p. 515, ll. 34-43)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Reading David Perkins, ed. English Romantic Writers. 2nd ed. (Harcourt Brace Publishers, 1995).
Compare "Effusion XXXV" in Poems on Various Subjects by S.T. Coleridge (London: Printed for G.G. an J. Robinsons and J. Cottle, 1796). <Link to ECCO>
Compare "Effusion XXXV" in Poems on Various Subjects by S.T. Coleridge (London: Printed for G.G. an J. Robinsons and J. Cottle, 1796). <Link to ECCO>
Theme
Aeolian Harp
Date of Entry
05/27/2008
Date of Review
05/27/2008
