Poems That Every Child Should Know/He Prayeth Best

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

For other versions of this work, see He Prayeth Best.

He Prayeth Best.

These two stanzas, the very heart of that great poem, "The Ancient Mariner," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), sum up the lesson of this masterpiece—"Insensibility is a crime."

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best who loveth best
All things, both great and small:
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

Samuel T. Coleridge.