Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

(Composed by the sea-side, October, 1817)

O, IT is pleasant, with a heart at ease,

Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies,

To make the shifting clouds be what you please,

Or let the easily persuaded eyes

Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould

Of a friend’s fancy; or with head bent low,

And cheek aslant, see rivers flow of gold

’Twixt crimson banks; and then, a traveller, go

From mount to mount, through CLOUDLAND, gorgeous land!

Or listening to the tide, with closéd sight,

Be that blind bard, who on the Chian strand

By those deep sounds possessed, with inward light

Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssee

Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea.