Coleridge
The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), who was born in Ottery St Mary, wrote this poem entitled Sonnet to the River Otter.
- Dear native brook! wild streamlet to the West!
- How many various-fated years have past,
- What happy, and what mournful hours since last
- I skimmed the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
- Numbering its light leaps! yet so deep imprest
- Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
- I never shut amid the sunny ray,
- But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,
- Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
- And bedded sand that, veined with various dyes,
- Gleamed through thy bright transparence! On my way,
- Visions of childhood! oft have ye beguiled
- Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs:
- Ah! that once more I were a careless child!
At Ottery St Mary the river is spanned by a 95-metre foot and cycle bridge named Coleridge Bridge; built at a cost approaching £1m this was officially opened on 29 August 2011. A small area of land at one end of the bridge was sold to the local authorities by Lord Coleridge, a descendant of the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Read more about this topic: River Otter
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