This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison

Well, they are gone, and here I must remain, This Lime-Tree bower my prison! I am alone! and yet I am not alone. There have been boys here I have known, Voices of children have I heard, And I am rooted here as I am, And so my heart is not alone.

I cannot go when they are gone; The boughs are thick with leaves, And the summer sun made shadows deep, As if to tear me from my home. But hear! the child is now all on the ground. He calls to his brother to come and see. How can the hour of play go by. Yet on the earth all things are still.

In this small space, I still can feel The feelings of love that will not yield. Like flowing water through a summer day, It makes me sad to hear you say, A farewell to me, surely must pay.

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge