Composed while climbing the left ascent of Brockley Coomb, in the county of Somerset, May, 1795

Coleridge would marry Sara Fricker in October 1795.  Throughout his life the beauty of a landscape inspired a longing in him for his beloved.  In 1799 he met one of the two major loves of his life, Sara Hutchinson, and 35 years later he remembers this poem as written for her, not with his future wife. PW 108

 

altWith many a pause and oft reverted eye
I climb the Coomb's ascent: sweet songsters near
Warble in shade their wild-wood melody:
Far off th’ unvarying Cuckoo soothes my ear.
Up scour the startling stragglers of the Flock
That on green plots o'er precipices brouze:
From the forc’d fissures of the naked rock
The Yew tree bursts! Beneath its dark green boughs
(Mid which the May-thorn blends its blossoms white)
Where broad smooth stones jut out in mossy seats,
I rest.—And now have gain’d the topmost site.
Ah! what a luxury of landscape meets
My gaze! Proud Towers, and Cots more dear to me,
Elm-shadow’d Fields, and prospect-bounding Sea!
Deep sighs my lonely heart: I drop the tear:
Enchanting spot! O were my SARA here!

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