Blindness in British/English novels/poetry

[youpushme]

Hi,

Can anyone reccommend any British or English novels or poetry that deal with blindness as a main theme?

Thanks!

[mmmmmm]

"When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

Milton, "On His Blindness"

[mayneverhave]

From "The Tower", W.B. Yeats


Some few remembered still when I was young
A peasant girl commended by a Song,
Who'd lived somewhere upon that rocky place,
And praised the colour of her face,
And had the greater joy in praising her,
Remembering that, if walked she there,
Farmers jostled at the fair
So great a glory did the song confer.

And certain men, being maddened by those rhymes,
Or else by toasting her a score of times,
Rose from the table and declared it right
To test their fancy by their sight;
But they mistook the brightness of the moon
For the prosaic light of day -
Music had driven their wits astray -
And one was drowned in the great bog of Cloone.

Strange, but the man who made the song was blind;
Yet, now I have considered it, I find
That nothing strange; the tragedy began
With Homer that was a blind man,
And Helen has all living hearts betrayed.
O may the moon and sunlight seem
One inextricable beam,
For if I triumph I must make men mad.

[MarkBastable]

A Voyage Round My Father - John Mortimer
Eyeless in Gaza - Aldous Huxley

[mono]

"The Merchant's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

[bluosean]

The Sea Wolf by Jack London. It is definitely in the story but I don't know if it is a main theme.

[Whifflingpin]

"Milton in America" by ?? I forget

[Adagio]

Figurative and literal blindness is one of King Lear's central themes.

[youpushme]

Excellent,thank you so much for your suggestions! How could I forget King Lear?!

[Whifflingpin]

"The Light that Failed" - Kipling