The Folk Show Treasure Hunt Song #14

Track 14 "Elegy For Coleridge"

Friday 28th August @ 11pm

Neil King's Along the Tracks / Blues & Roots Radio

Online live link: http://www.bluesandrootsradio.com

The Team:

Ange Hardy (vocals & whistle)
Jo May (rope tension snare drum)
Steve Knightley (vocals)
Patsy Reid (vocals)
Lukas Drinkwater (vocals)
Steve Pledger (vocals)
Jonny Dyer (vocals)
David Milton (vocals)

The Song:

Coleridge wrote his own epitaph, I’ve used elements of his epitaph in a triumphant elegy, how could I end the album with anything else?

The photograph of the epitaph on this page was taken by Enzo Cerri and kindly provided by St Michael’s Church in Highgate where Coleridge was re-interred in 1961. 

The Lyrics:

Each is the life the Lord has made
And each from the womb of a mother came
All who live will go by grave
As all who fall before thee

Come Pray that he who toils of breath
As death in life finds life in death
Ask and hope through Christ in rest
As he who falls before thee

Each is a day the Lord has made
And each with the mother of my children paved
Each of our boys both bright and brave
Two sons and one fine daughter

Come Pray that he who toils of breath
As death in life finds life in death
Ask and hope through Christ in rest
As he who falls before thee

Each is the hour the Lord has made
And each with my brother is a joyous trade
mine mere words where his are ways
Two sons and one as father

Come Pray that he who toils of breath 
As death in life finds life in death
Ask and hope through Christ in rest 
As he who falls before thee

Notes From Coleridge:

"Stop, Christian passer-by!—Stop, child of God, And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sod A poet lies, or that which once seemed he.
O, lift one thought in prayer for S. T. C.;

That he who many a year with toil of breath Found death in life, may here find life in death! Mercy for praise—to be forgiven for fame
He asked, and hoped, through Christ.

Do thou the same!"

- Engraved on Coleridge’s tomb, St Michael’s Church, Highgate