Coleridge originally included this poem in a letter to his wife, Sara, dated "Göttingen in der Wende Strasse, April 8th, 1799", several months after the death of their second son, Berkeley, who was born May 14, 1798 and died early in 1799 while Coleridge was in Germany. Coleridge says "Ah, my poor Berkley! A few weeks ago an Englishman desired me to write an Epitaph on an Infant who had died before it's Christening - While I wrote it, my heart with a deep misgiving turned my thoughts homewards." Coleridge then includes the poem as written in this manuscript with the exception of minor changes in punctuation.
Being a poem of six lines as follows, " 'Be, rather than be call'd, a child of God!' / Death whisper'd. With assenting nod / It's head upon the mother's breast / The Baby bow'd, and went without demur, / Of the kingdom of the Blest / Possessor, not Inheritor! / S.T. Coleridge."