Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
Something Childish, but Very Natural
Written in Germany
1 If I had but two little wings
2 And were a little feathery bird,
3 To you I'd fly, my dear!
4But thoughts like these are idle things,
5 And I stay here.
6 But in my sleep to you I fly:
7 I'm always with you in my sleep!
8 The world is all one's own.
9But then one wakes, and where am I?
10 All, all alone.
11 Sleep stays not, though a monarch bids:
12 So I love to wake ere break of day:
13 For though my sleep be gone,
14Yet while 'tis dark, one shuts one's lids,
15 And still dreams on.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: S. T. Coleridge, Annual Anthology (London: Biggs; Bristol: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800) B-10 967 Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
First publication date:
1800
RPO poem editor: J. D. Robins
RP edition: 2RP 2.118.
Recent editing: 4:2002/3/20
Composition date:
1799
Rhyme: abcac
Other poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
