Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 76-81
Like those, my babe! which ere tomorrow's warmth
Have capp'd their sharp keen points with pendulous drops,
Will catch thine eye, and with their novelty
Suspend thy little soul; then make thee shout,
And stretch and flutter from thy mother's arms
As thou wouldst fly for very eagerness.
- Coleridge crossed these out of the later, revised version of the poem (which is the one everyone uses). But we're going to cover them, anyway… just for the sake of getting it all down.
- Coleridge says that the icicles, with melting drops running from them, will catch his baby's eye and "suspend" (catch and hold) little Hartley's attention. Struck by the messages from God that are hidden in the icicle, the baby will suddenly shout and move in his mother's arms as though he would fly, suddenly inspired and amazed.
- Apparently, Coleridge thought that he'd already put his point across—ending with the image of the icicles shining to the moon seemed more effective.