Poems by Hartley Coleridge With a Memoir of his Life by his Brother. In Two Volumes |
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 | Poems by Hartley Coleridge |  |
21
XIX.
From infancy to retrospective eld,Year after year, we slide from day to day
Like a sleek stream, from bay to sinuous bay
Wearing the course it evermore hath held.
The crumbling banks, that have so long compell'd
The stream to wind, to haste, to strive, or stay,
Drop down at last and quite choke up the way
That once they foil'd. The river that rebell'd
Becomes a marsh, prolific of ill weeds.
Such is the life of him who streams along
A lazy course, unweeting of his deeds;
Till duty, hope, love, custom, prayers and creeds
Crumble away, and yield to helpless wrong,
That from the mere disuse of right proceeds.
| Poems by Hartley Coleridge | |