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John Quincy Adams, among his many talents, was also a prolific writer and poet. In honor of today's total solar eclipse, I give you his sonnet, "To the Sun, Eclipsed" which was written in his diary immediately after a successful viewing in 1846. (An earlier attempt at viewing the solar eclipse was done without protection and temporarily blinded him - so be careful out there! Even our smartest president was prone to make dangerous mistakes).
Source of the sonnet from the Massachusetts Historical Society:
http://www.masshist.org/jqadiaries/php/doc?id=jqad45_539
http://www.masshist.org/jqadiaries/php/doc?id=jqad45_540
