McGill Home Page

McGill Works Online

Personal Information

Intellectus Curisitas

McGill Social Links

Listen - Visit Site - Stations

Become Powerful!

Links & Partners

World Poetry Translation Project

Submit Human Translation | Discuss Poem | Post Poetry | Listen McGill Live

Love
by Samuel Coleridge

All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
Are all but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame.

Oft in my waking dreams do I
Live o'er again that happy hour,
When midway on the mount I lay
Beside the ruined tower.

The moonshine stealing o'er the scene
Had blended with the lights of eve;
And she was there, my hope, my joy,
My own dear Genevieve!

She leant against the armed man,
The statue of the armed knight;
She stood and listened to my lay,
Amid the lingering light.

Few sorrows hath she of her own,
My hope! my joy! my Genevieve!
She loves me best, whene'er I sing
The songs that make her grieve.

I played a soft and doleful air,
I sang an old and moving story-
An old rude song, that suited well
That ruin wild and hoary.

She listened with a flitting blush,
With downcast eyes and modest grace;
For well she knew I could not choose
But gaze upon her face.

I told her of the Knight that wore
Upon his shield a burning brand;
And that for ten long years he wooed
The Lady of the Land.

I told her how he pined: and ah!
The deep, the low, the pleading tone
With which I sang another's love
Interpreted my own.

She listened with a flitting blush,
With downcast eyes and modest grace;
And she forgave me, that I gazed
Too fondly on her face!

But when I told the cruel scorn
That crazed that bold and lovely Knight,
And that he crossed the mountain-woods,
Nor rested day nor night;

That sometimes from the savage den,
And sometimes from the darksome shade,
And sometimes starting up at once
In green and sunny glade,-

There came and looked him in the face
An angel beautiful and bright;
And that he knew it was a Fiend,
This miserable Knight!

And that, unknowing what he did,
He leaped amid a murderous band,
And saved from outrage worse than death
The Lady of the Land;

And how she wept, and clasped his knees;
And how she tended him in vain;
And ever strove to expiate
The scorn that crazed his brain;-

And that she nursed him in a cave;
And how his madness went away,
When on the yellow forest-leaves
A dying man he lay;-

His dying words-but when I reached
That tenderest strain of all the ditty,
My faltering voice and pausing harp
Disturbed her soul with pity!

All impulses of soul and sense
Had thrilled my guileless Genevieve;
The music and the doleful tale,
The rich and balmy eve;

And hopes, and fears that kindle hope,
An undistinguishable throng,
And gentle wishes long subdued,
Subdued and cherished long!

She wept with pity and delight,
She blushed with love, and virgin shame;
And like the murmur of a dream,
I heard her breathe my name.

Her bosom heaved-she stepped aside,
As conscious of my look she stepped-
Then suddenly, with timorous eye,
She fled to me and wept.

She half enclosed me with her arms,
She pressed me with a meek embrace;
And bending back her head, looked up,
And gazed upon my face.

'Twas partly love, and partly fear,
And partly 'twas a bashful art,
That I might rather feel, than see,
The swelling of her heart.

I calmed her fears, and she was calm,
And told her love with virgin pride;
And so I won my Genevieve,
My bright and beauteous Bride.

American Review | www.PaperLyon.com | McGill Live Radio | Publish

Translations for this Poem

English	Spanish	French	German
Italian	Portuguese	Korean	Russian
Chinese	Japanese


	Poems by Samuel Coleridge Brockley Coomb Cologne Dejection An Ode Fears In Solitude France An Ode Frost At Midnight Kubla Khan Love On Donnes Poetry Reflections On Having Left The Dungeon The Eolian Harp The Nightingale The Pains Of Sleep The Rime Of The Ancient Ma This Lime-Tree Bower My Pr Time Real And Imaginary To Nature To The Rev George Coleridg To The River Otter Youth And Age


	A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P RST V W Y [ALL]


	Samuel Coleridge


	Sara Teasdale


	Seamus Heaney


	Sharon Olds


	Siegfried Sassoon


	Sir Henry Newbolt


	Sir Philip Sidney


	Sir Thomas Browne


	Sir Walter Raleigh


	Stanley Kunitz


	Stephen Dobyns


	Stephen Dunn


	Stevie Smith


	Sylvia Plath


	Volunteers needed to translate poetry into different languages. Please help us correct the translation of these poems. We currently have 79,663 translations and are trying to create the largest and most accurate database of world poetry translations. We have started with machine translations which are very inaccurate. Please translate your favorite poem on this site. You will be given credit for your translation and a link to your site if desired. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: These poems have been gathered and submitted by many of people, and from many sources. Most have no copyright. However, some may may have copyrights. We have tried to collect poems that appear on many external sites where the author seems to want to disseminate. If you are an author and do not want your poetry translated into other languages then send a removal request and it will be promptly removed.

Universal Navigator

Recent Treaty Signers

Matt Damon
Ben Affleck
George Noory
Charles Barkley
Don Cheadle
Jason Alexander
Montel Williams
Raymond "Ray" Romano
Bibi McGill
Paul Gardener, Esquire
Jim "Supermind" Karol
Halima Rashid
Susaye Greene
Chantelle Paige
Katherine Kovin Pacino

Primary Web Sites

Other McGill Projects

Future Projects

Light a Candle
Heal the World