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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


MELANCHOLY: A FRAGMENT by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Poet Analysis

First Line: STRETCH'D ON A MOULDERED ABBEY'S BROADEST WALL
Last Line: STRANGE WAS THE DREAM --

Stretch'd on a mouldered Abbey's broadest wall,
Where ruining ivies propped the ruins steep --
Her folded arms wrapping her tattered pall,
Had melancholy mus'd herself to sleep.
The fern was press'd beneath her hair,
The dark green adder's tongue was there;
And still as passed the flagging sea-gale weak,
The long lank leaf bowed fluttering o'er her cheek.

That pallid cheek was flushed: her eager look
Beamed eloquent in slumber! Inly wrought,
Imperfect sounds her moving lips forsook,
And her bent forehead worked with troubled thought.
Strange was the dream --



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