In “Sonnet: To the River Otter,” Coleridge explores the most familiar themes in his poetry: the adult’s longing for childhood innocence; the connection between pastoral life and happiness, particularly childhood happiness; and the power of the imagination. In the sonnet, the speaker’s imagination transports him back to his beloved childhood memories and restores his intimacy with nature.
The words "Dear native brook!" (line 1) indicate that the speaker is remembering a stream near his childhood home, placing the poetic memory squarely in the halcyon days of youth from the outset. Although "many various-fated years have past" since he has been near this brook, the speaker still remembers it clearly and with fondness. He longs for the time he used to skip "the smooth stone along thy breast" (line 4), connecting the brook to the feminine form of nature which he sees as both nurturing and alluring. He echoes this sense of enchantment in lines 12-13, wherein the visions of childhood the brook offers "oft have...beguiled/Lone manhood's cares." While not necessarily a strong sexual image, Coleridge still leaves the hint of sexual duality in the male speaker and the female brook; he also goes another direction, invoking the nurturing spirit of Nature as mother (although the act of the child skipping stones across the brook's "breast" seems to indicate that, to the child at least, the femininity of nature is neither sexual nor maternal, but simply there).