Relationships

Lines on a Child

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772–1834

From Poems of Coleridge, selected by Arthur Symons (1905)

Relationships

Encinctured with a twine of leaves,
That leafy twine his only dress!
A lovely Boy was plucking fruits,
By moonlight, in a wilderness.
The moon was bright, the air was free,
And fruits and flowers together grew,
On many a shrub and many a tree:
And all put on a gentle hue,
Hanging in the shadowy air
Like a picture rich and rare.
It was a climate where, they say,
The night is more belov'd than day.
But who that beauteous Boy beguil'd,
That beauteous Boy to linger here?
Alone, by night, a little child,
In place so silent and so wild-
Has he no friend, no loving mother near?

MLA

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Lines on a Child.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/68/.

Chicago

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Lines on a Child.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/68/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Samuel Taylor Coleridge