Explore "The Blind Man" by Théophile Gautier on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A blind man walks without the gate, / Wild-staring as an owl by day, / Fumbling his flute betimes and late, / Along the way.
He pipeth, weary wretch and worn, / A roundel shrill and obsolete. / The spectre of a dog forlorn / Attends his feet.
For him the days go lustreless. / Invisible life with beat and roar / He heareth like a torrent press / Around, before.
What strange chimeras haunt his head_ / _And on his mind's bedarkened space, / What characters unheard, unread, / Doth fancy trace?
Thus down Venetian leads of doom, / Wan prisoners ensepulchred / In palpable, undying gloom / Have graven their word.
And yet perchance when life's last spark / Death speeds unto eternal night, / The tomb-bred soul, within the dark, / Shall see the light.