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What Is Life?

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

Resembles Life what once was held of Light,
     Too ample in itself for human sight ?
An absolute Self--an element ungrounded--
All, that we see, all colours of all shade
     [Image]By encroach of darkness made ?--
Is very life by consciousness unbounded ?
And all the thoughts, pains, joys of mortal breath,
A war-embrace of wrestling Life and Death ?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 28, 2023

17 sec read
873

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAABBCDD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 355
Words 59
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 8
Full analysis for What Is Life? »

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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