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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO A DEAF AND DUMB LITTLE GIRL by DAVID HARTLEY COLERIDGE

Poet Analysis

First Line: LIKE A LOOSE ISLAND ON THE WIDE EXPANSE
Last Line: GOD MUST BE WITH HER IN HER SOLITUDE.
Subject(s): DEAFNESS;

LIKE a loose island on the wide expanse,
Unconscious floating on the fickle sea,
Herself her all, she lives in privacy;
Her waking life as lonely as a trance,
Doom'd to behold the universal dance,
And never hear the music which expounds
The solemn step, coy slide, the merry bounds,
The vague mute language of the countenance.
In vain for her I smooth my antic rhyme;
She cannot hear it, all her little being
Concentred in her solitary seeing --
What can she know of beauteous or sublime?
And yet methinks she looks so calm and good,
God must be with her in her solitude.



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