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SONNETS ON EMINENT CHARACTERS: 11. TO RICHARD SHERIDAN by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Poet Analysis

First Line: IT WAS SOME SPIRIT, SHERIDAN! THAT BREATHED
Last Line: AS ERST THAT ELDER FIEND BENEATH GREAT MICHAEL'S SWORD.
Subject(s): SHERIDAN, RICHARD BRINSLEY (1751-1816);

It was some Spirit, Sheridan! that breathed
O'er thy young mind such wildly various power!
My soul hath marked thee in her shaping hour,
Thy temples with Hymettian flow'rets wreathed:
And sweet thy voice, as when o'er Laura's bier
Sad music trembled through Vauclusa's glade;
Sweet, as at dawn the love-lorn Serenade
That wafts soft dreams to Slumber's listening ear.
Now patriot rage and indignation high
Swell the full tones! And now thine eye-beams dance
Meanings of Scorn and Wit's quaint revelry!
Writhes inly from the bosom-probing glance
The Apostate by the brainless rout adored,
As erst that elder Fiend beneath great Michael's sword.



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