Quote#Children
A little child, a limber elf
Quote bySamuel Taylor Coleridge · 1772–1834
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Christabel (wr. 1797–1801; pub. 1816), Conclusion to Part II, l. 656.
English (original)
A little child, a limber elf, Singing, dancing to itself, A fairy thing with red round cheeks, That always finds, and never seeks, Makes such a vision to the sight As fills a father’s eyes with light.
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge
More from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw
And what if all of animated nature Be but organic harps diversly fram'd, That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, At once the Soul of each, and God of All?
Joy rises in me, like a summer's morn.
And this reft house is that the which he built, Lamented Jack!
O! I do love thee, meek Simplicity!
Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, Death came with friendly care; The opening bud to heaven conveyed, And bade it blossom there.