O sleep, my babe
July 6, 2023You may forget but
July 6, 2023From “Phantasmion” – One Face Alone
ONE face alone, one face alone,
These eyes require;
But, when that long’d-for sight is shown,
What fatal fire
Shoots through my veins a keen and liquid flame,
That melts each fibre of my wasting frame!
One voice alone, one voice alone,
I pine to hear;
But, when its meek mellifluous tone
Usurps mine ear,
Those slavish chains about my soul are wound,
Which ne’er, till death itself, can be unbound.
One gentle hand, one gentle hand,
I fain would hold;
But, when it seems at my command,
My own grows cold;
Then low to earth I bend in sickly swoon,
Like lilies drooping ’mid the blaze of noon.
Sara Coleridge
Sara Coleridge (1802-1852) was an English writer and translator who is best known for her memoir of her father, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. She also translated several works of German literature into English and was a respected literary critic.