Happy birthday, Coleridge.

Northcote, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1804

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on this date in 1772.

Something Childish, but Very Natural  

 If I had but two little wings

      And were a little feathery bird,

         To you I'd fly, my dear!

But thoughts like these are idle things,

         And I stay here.

   But in my sleep to you I fly:

      I'm always with you in my sleep!

         The world is all one's own.

But then one wakes, and where am I?

         All, all alone.

   Sleep stays not, though a monarch bids:

      So I love to wake ere break of day:

         For though my sleep be gone,

Yet while 'tis dark, one shuts one's lids,

         And still dreams on.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge