Sibylline Leaves (Coleridge)/Sonnet to the River Otter

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

SONNET TO THE RIVER OTTER.

 

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 strait with all their tints thy^{[errata 1]}) waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
And bedded sand that vein'd with various dies
Gleam'd through thy bright transparence! On my way,
Visions of childhood! oft have ye beguiled
Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs.
Ah! that once more I were a careless child!^{[errata 2]})

Errata

1. Original: their was amended to thy: detail
2. Original: Ah! that I were once more a careless child! was amended to Ah! that once more I were a careless child!: detail