World Poetry Month: Day Nineteen
Today’s poetry is ‘Presence of Love’ a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was many things: a poet, a critic, a philosopher, and a drug addict.
Probably his most famous poem is Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is filled with imagination and creativity.
His thoughts were probably the most imaginative of all Romantic poets (maybe it was all that opium! ).
Coleridge’s poetry is defined by the poetic principle of imagination, and this is what makes his poems great.
Many later poets tried to emulate his sensuous lyricism, particularly in his poems about love, one of the defining characteristics of Romantic poetry.
The poem “Presence of Love” may not be as well known as some of his other poems, but perhaps that makes it all the more special on Valentine’s Day.
‘Presence of Love’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge ▶️
And in Life’s noisiest hour,
There whispers still the ceaseless Love of Thee,
The heart’s Self-solace and soliloquy.You mould my Hopes, you fashion me within;
And to the leading Love-throb in the Heart
Thro’ all my Being, thro’ my pulse’s beat;
You lie in all my many Thoughts, like Light,
Like the fair light of Dawn, or summer Eve
On rippling Stream, or cloud-reflecting Lake.And looking to the Heaven, that bends above you,
How oft! I bless the Lot that made me love you.
