
Transcriber's Note: The original publication has been replicated faithfully except as listed here.
In the gentle hills of Somerset, a young Samuel Taylor Coleridge awakens to a modest cottage life that feels both ordinary and oddly poetic. The narrative follows his reluctant rise from sleep, the clumsy yet determined effort to stoke a fire, and his reverent pauses to admire the blooming orchard outside his window. Through these simple chores, the listener catches a glimpse of the poet’s self‑conscious blend of sloth, good nature, and a flicker of hidden brilliance.
Soon his wife Sara appears, bustling through the household with sharp wit and a pragmatic eye, gently chastising his dreamy distractions while offering steady companionship. Their interaction reveals the quiet tension between a man whose heart beats at a calm, steady tempo and a woman who longs for a spark of fervor. The arrival of their guest, the aspiring poet Charles Lloyd, adds another layer, introducing the promise of mentorship and the subtle strains of a mind caught between financial necessity and artistic yearning.
Language
en
Duration
~40 minutes (39K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Henry Gardiner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Release date
2011-06-06
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
1861–1936
A prolific British writer and poet, she moved easily between biography, verse, children’s literature, and practical books. She is best remembered today for retelling J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan stories for younger readers.
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