| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | III. “Long time a child” | | By Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) |
| | | LONG time a child, and still a child, when years | |
| Had painted manhood on my cheek, was I; | |
| For yet I lived like one not born to die: | |
| A thriftless prodigal of smiles and tears, | |
| No hope I needed, and I knew no fears. | 5 |
| But sleep, though sweet, is only sleep; and waking, | |
| I waked to sleep no more; at once o’ertaking | |
| The vanguard of my age, with all arrears | |
| Of duty on my back.—Nor child, nor man, | |
| Nor youth, nor sage, I find my head is gray, | 10 |
| For I have lost the race I never ran; | |
| A rathe December blights my lagging May; | |
| And still I am a child, though I be old: | |
| Time is my debtor for my years untold. | | | | |
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