The Dungeon

Samuel Taylor Coleridge * Track #126 On The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol I

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Album The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol I

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Dungeon by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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In the first stanza, Coleridge describes the spiritually eroding effect of long-term imprisonment on the human being. A convicted criminal “lies / Circled with evil” (16-17) until the soul “Unmoulds its essence” (18). A dungeon does not reform a criminal, but rather insidiously inflicts permanent da...

The Dungeon Annotated

And this place our forefathers made for man!
This is the process of our love and wisdom,
To each poor brother who offends against us—
Most innocent, perhaps—and what if guilty?
Is this the only cure? Merciful God! 5
Each pore and natural outlet shrivell'd up
By Ignorance and parching Poverty,
His energies roll back upon his heart,
And stagnate and corrupt; till chang'd to poison,
They break out on him, like a loathsome plague-spot;
Then we call in our pamper'd mountebanks—
And this is their best cure! uncomforted
And friendless solitude, groaning and tears,
And savage faces, at the clanking hour,
Seen through the steams and vapour of his dungeon,
By the lamp's dismal twilight! So he lies
Circled with evil, till his very soul
Unmoulds its essence, hopelessly deform'd
By sights of ever more deformity!

With other ministrations thou, O Nature!
Healest thy wandering and distemper'd child:
Thou pourest on him thy soft influences,
Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets,
Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters,
Till he relent, and can no more endure
To be a jarring and a dissonant thing,
Amid this general dance and minstrelsy;
But, bursting into tears, wins back his way,
His angry spirit heal'd and harmoniz'd
By the benignant touch of Love and Beauty.

The Dungeon

Samuel Taylor Coleridge * Track #126 On The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol I

Download "The Dungeon"

Album The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol I

The Dungeon by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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The Dungeon Annotated

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