The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol 2 (of 2)

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

9

Old age, 'the shape and messenger of Death,'
'His wither'd Fist still knocking at Death's door.'

First published in Lit. Rem., i. 279. Quoted from Sackville's Induction to a Mirrour for Magistrates, stanza 48:

'His wither'd fist stil knocking at deathes dore,
Tumbling and driveling as he drawes his breth;
For briefe, the shape and messenger of death.'

---