Sonnet: To the River Otter (unsourced)

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Sonnet to the River Otter
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Thought to have been written around 1793, most of the lines were first published in The Watchman, 2nd April, 1796, as part of another work. The full work was first published in the 2nd edition of 'Poems' in 1797.

227784Sonnet to the River OtterSamuel Taylor Coleridge

Dear native Brook! wild Streamlet of the West!
How many various-fated years have past,
What happy, and what mournful hours, since last
I skimm'd the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
Numbering its light leaps! yet so deep impresst
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny ray,
But straight with all their tints their waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
And bedded sand that vein'd with various dyes
Gleamed through thy bright transparence! On my way,
Visions of childhood! oft have ye beguiled
Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs.
Ah! that I were once more a careless child!

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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