Sonnet XVIII. To The Autumnal Moon

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 (Ottery St Mary) – 1834 (Highgate)



Mild Splendor of the various-vested Night!
Mother of wildly-working visions! hail!
I watch thy gliding, while with watery light
Thy weak eye glimmers through a fleecy veil;
And when thou lovest thy pale orb to shroud
Behind the gather'd blackness lost on high;
And when thou dartest from the wind-rent cloud
Thy placid lightning o'er th' awakened sky.
Ah, such is Hope! As changeful and as fair!
Now dimly peering on the wistful sight;
Now hid behind the dragon-wing'd Despair:
But soon emerging in her radiant might
She o'er the sorrow-clouded breast of Care
Sails, like a meteor kindling in its flight.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 16, 2023

32 sec read
186

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCDEAEAEA
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 601
Words 104
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. more…

All Samuel Taylor Coleridge poems | Samuel Taylor Coleridge Books

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    "Sonnet XVIII. To The Autumnal Moon" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/34326/sonnet-xviii.--to-the-autumnal-moon>.

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