Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772--1834)
SONNET V. TO THE RIVER OTTER (COMPOSED c.1793)
Dear native brook, wild streamlet of the west!
How many various-fated years have passed,
What blissful and what anguished hours, since last
I skimmed the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
Numbering its light leaps! Yet so deep impressed [5]
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny blaze,
But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy margin's willowy maze,
And bedded sand that, veined with various dyes, [10]
Gleamed through thy bright transparence to the gaze!
Visions of childhood, oft have ye beguiled
Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs --
Ah, that once more I were a careless child!