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Coleridge, "Sonnet: To Pitt" (CC
16.1.1.160-1)
This sonnet was published in MC
23
December 1794, in The Morning Chronicle sequence of Coleridge's "Sonnets
on Eminent Characters." The sonnet was reprinted, with minor revisions,
in
The Watchman 5 (2 April 1796) and in Poems (1796, 1803). The
following version is from Poems (1796).
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Not always should the tear's
ambrosial dew
Roll its soft anguish down thy
furrow'd cheek!
Not always heaven-breath'd tones
of suppliance meek
Beseem thee,
Mercy! Yon dark Scowler view,
Who with proud words of
dear-lov'd Freedom came —
More blasting, than the mildew
from the South!
And kiss'd his country with
Iscariot mouth
(Ah! foul apostate from his
Father's fame!)
Then fix'd her on the cross of
deep distress,
And at safe distance marks the
thirsty lance
Pierce her big side! But
ô! if some
strange trance
The eye-lids of thy stern-brow'd
Sister press,
Seize,
Mercy! thou more terrible the
brand,
And hurl her thunderbolts with
fiercer hand!
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5
10
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Variants
8. In the Morning Chronicle version,
this line reads, "(Staining
most foul a godlike Father's name)!"
13. In the Morning Chronicle version,
this line reads, "Seize thou, more terrible, th'avenging brand —"
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