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To Nature by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Analysis

"To Nature" is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In this poem, Coleridge speaks of how he loves nature, and because of this he has learned something about love and piety. He goes on to compare nature to God or a spirit or at the very least a church. He goes on to say that he will put his alter in the fields and compares himself to a priest.

This poem is written as one stanza with fourteen lines. It is rhymed as ABBAACCDEDEDFF and is written in iambic-pentameter. Because of this, it is seen as a Shakespearean Sonnet.

Poem

To Nature
By 

It may indeed be fantasy when I
Essay to draw from all created things
Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings;
And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie
Lessons of love and earnest piety.
So let it be; and if the wide world rings
In mock of this belief, it brings
Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity.
So will I build my altar in the fields,
And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,
And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields
Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee,
Thee only God! and thou shalt not despise
Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice.
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