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The poem's simplicity of language and gentle tone convey a nostalgic longing for the carefree days of childhood when friendships were intuitive and unanalyzed. As the speaker grows older, however, they discover the unparalleled beauty and depth that friendship offers.
Friendship. by Hartley Coleridge. WHEN we were idlers with the loitering rills, The need of human love we little noted: Our love was nature; and the peace that floated. On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills, To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills: One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted, That, wisely doting, ask'd not why it doted,
Although he was the subject of two of his father’s poems—“ Frost at Midnight ” and “The Nightingale”—Coleridge was nonetheless estranged from his parents in his youth and raised by the poet Robert Southey. Coleridge attended Oxford and received a fellowship to Oriel College.
Hartley Coleridge. When we were idlers with the loitering rills, The need of human love we little noted: Our love was nature; and the peace that floated. On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills, To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills:
Friendship. When we were idlers with the loitering rills, The need of human love we little noted: Our love was nature; and the peace that floated. On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills, To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills: One soul was ours, one mind, one heart...
Hartley spent the next eight years in constant companionship with his younger brother Derwent, at home and at school. Beginning in the summer of 1808 they attended school as day-scholars at Ambleside, under the tutelage of the Rev. John Dawes. During their time at the school they resided in Clappersgate.
Friendship. When we were idlers with the loitering rills, The need of human love we little noted: Our love was nature; and the peace that floated. On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills, To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills: One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted, That, wisely doting, ask'd not why it doted,
