Quotes from work
Christabel

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Christabel is a long narrative ballad by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in two parts. The first part was reputedly written in 1797, and the second in 1800. Coleridge planned three additional parts, but these were never completed. Coleridge prepared for the first two parts to be published in the 1800 edition of Lyrical Ballads, but on the advice of William Wordsworth it was left out; the exclusion of the poem, coupled with his inability to finish it, left Coleridge in doubt about his poetical power. It was published in a pamphlet in 1816, alongside Kubla Khan and The Pains of Sleep.

“A sight to dream of, not to tell!”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part I, l. 252
Christabel (written 1797–1801, published 1816)

“And the spring comes slowly up this way.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part I
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Christabel

“Her gentle limbs did she undress,
And lay down in her loveliness.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part I, l. 237
Christabel (written 1797–1801, published 1816)

“There is not wind enough to twirl
The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part I, l. 48
Christabel (written 1797–1801, published 1816)

“Carv'd with figures strange and sweet,
All made out of the carver's brain.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part I
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Christabel

“Saints will aid if men will call:
For the blue sky bends over all!”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part I, l. 330
Christabel (written 1797–1801, published 1816)

“Alas! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth,
And constancy lives in realms above;
And life is thorny; and youth is vain;
And to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part II, l. 408
Christabel (written 1797–1801, published 1816)

“They stood aloof, the scars remaining,—
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder:
A dreary sea now flows between.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part II
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Christabel

“Each matin bell, the Baron saith,
Knells us back to a world of death.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part II
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Christabel

“Her face, oh call it fair, not pale!”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part II
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Christabel

“A lady richly clad as she,
Beautiful exceedingly.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Part I
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Christabel

“Perhaps 't is pretty to force together
Thoughts so all unlike each other;
To mutter and mock a broken charm,
To dally with wrong that does no harm.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel

Conclusion to Part II
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Christabel

Similar authors

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

Samuel Taylor Coleridge220

English poet, literary critic and philosopher 1772–1834

Matthew Arnold photo

Matthew Arnold166

English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector… None

Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo

Henri-Frédéric Amiel50

Swiss philosopher and poet None

Heinrich Heine photo

Heinrich Heine61

German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic None

Giacomo Leopardi photo

Giacomo Leopardi18

Italian poet, philosopher and writer None

Edgar Allan Poe photo

Edgar Allan Poe126

American author, poet, editor and literary critic None

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

Percy Bysshe Shelley246

English Romantic poet None

William Blake photo

William Blake249

English Romantic poet and artist None

Robert Browning photo

Robert Browning179

English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era None

Robert Southey photo

Robert Southey51

British poet None

Similar authors

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

Samuel Taylor Coleridge220

English poet, literary critic and philosopher 1772–1834

Matthew Arnold photo

Matthew Arnold166

English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector… None

Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo

Henri-Frédéric Amiel50

Swiss philosopher and poet None

Heinrich Heine photo

Heinrich Heine61

German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic None

Giacomo Leopardi photo

Giacomo Leopardi18

Italian poet, philosopher and writer None