Spaziergänge in Valletta und Umgebung (6)

MALTA 164

Samuel Taylor Coleridge ist mir auch schon in Berlin begegnet.

MALTA 165

In 1804 Samuel Taylor Coleridge traveled to Malta, hoping the more temperate climate would aid his poor health and end his addiction to opium. During his time there, Alexander Ball, the Governor of Malta, encouraged the poet to write propaganda about British trade routes, and eventually Coleridge was promoted to the position of Public Secretary. Below (here: This Day in Lettres), he writes to his wife Sara, noting his first impressions of the place in which he would spend his next two years.

MALTA 086

The whole island looks like one monstrous fortification. Nothing green meets your eye—one dreary, grey-white,— and all the country towns from the retirement and invisibility of the windows look like towns burnt out and desolate.

MALTA 041

The fortifications of Valetta are endless. When I first walked about them, I was struck all of a heap with their strangeness, and when I came to understand a little of their purpose, I was overwhelmed with wonder.

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