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

The Mad Monk by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Mad Monk Annotated

I heard a voice from Etna's side;
&nbspWhere o'er a cavern's mouth
&nbspThat fronted to the south
A chesnut spread its umbrage wide:
A hermit or a monk the man might be;
&nbspBut him I could not see:
And thus the music flow'd along,
In melody most like to old Sicilian song:

'There was a time when earth, and sea, and skies,
&nbspThe bright green vale, and forest's dark recess,
With all things, lay before mine eyes
&nbspIn steady loveliness:
But now I feel, on earth's uneasy scene,
&nbspSuch sorrows as will never cease;—
&nbspI only ask for peace;
If I must live to know that such a time has been!'
A silence then ensued:
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspTill from the cavern came
&nbsp       &nbsp       &nbspA voice;—it was the same!
And thus, in mournful tone, its dreary plaint renew'd:

'Last night, as o'er the sloping turf I trod,
&nbspThe smooth green turf, to me a vision gave
Beneath mine eyes, the sod—
&nbspThe roof of Rosa's grave!

My heart has need with dreams like these to strive,
&nbspFor, when I woke, beneath mine eyes I found
&nbspThe plot of mossy ground,
On which we oft have sat when Rosa was alive.—
Why must the rock, and margin of the flood,
&nbspWhy must the hills so many flow'rets bear,
Whose colours to a murder'd maiden's blood,
&nbspSuch sad resemblance wear?—

'I struck the wound,—this hand of mine!
For Oh, thou maid divine,
&nbspI lov'd to agony!
The youth whom thou call'd'st thine
&nbspDid never love like me!

'Is it the stormy clouds above
&nbspThat flash'd so red a gleam?
&nbspOn yonder downward trickling stream?—
'Tis not the blood of her I love.—
The sun torments me from his western bed,
&nbspOh, let him cease for ever to diffuse
&nbspThose crimson spectre hues!
Oh, let me lie in peace, and be for ever dead!'

Here ceas'd the voice. In deep dismay,
Down thro' the forest I pursu'd my way

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