"Written During a Temporary Blindness in the Year 1799" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 21, 2018   Written During a Temporary Blindness in the Year 1799   Samuel Taylor Coleridge

O what a life is the eye! what a strange and inscrutable essence! Him, that is utterly blind, nor glimpses the fire that warms him; Him that never beheld the swelling breast of his mother; Him that smiled in his gladness as a babe that smiles in its slumber; Even for him it exists! It moves and stirs in its prison! Lives with a separate life: and—"Is it a spirit!" he murmurs: "Sure, it has thoughts of its own, and to see is only a language!"                This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   "Written During a Temporary Blindness in the Year 1799" was published in Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (C.S. Francis, 1848).   Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on October 21, 1772, in Devonshire, England. His books include Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems (Rest Fenner, 1817), Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (T. N. Longman, 1798), and Poems on Various Subjects (C. G. & J Robinson, 1796), among others. He died in London, England, on July 25, 1834. Poetry by Coleridge   Sibylline Leaves (Tredition Classics, 2013) "Alice at Seventeen: Like a Blind Child" by Darcy Cummings "Blind Boone's Apparitions" by Tyehimba Jess "A Study in Perspective" by Constance Merritt October Guest Editor: Ross Gay   Thanks to Ross Gay, author of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Gay and our guest editors for the year. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038