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1772–1834

The stars that wont to start, as on a chace...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The stars that wont to start, as on a chace, Mid twinkling insult on Heaven's darken'd face, Like a conven'd conspiracy of spies Wink at each other with confiding eyes!

Turn from the portent — all is blank on high, No constellations alphabet the sky: The Heavens one large Black Letter only shew, And as a child beneath its master's blow

Shrills out at once its task and its affright — The groaning world now learns to read aright, And with its Voice of Voices cries out, O!

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