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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ELEGIAC SONNET: 70. ON BEING CAUTIONED AGAINST WALKING ON A HEADLAND by CHARLOTTE SMITH

Poet Analysis

First Line: IS THERE A SOLITARY WRETCH WHO HIES
Last Line: THE DEPTH OR THE DURATION OF HIS WOE.

ON AN HEADLAND OVERLOOKING THE SEA, BECAUSE IT WAS FREQUENTED BY A LUNATIC

Is there a solitary wretch who hies
To the tall cliff, with starting pace or slow,
And, measuring, views with wild and hollow eyes
Its distance from the waves that chide below;
Who, as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs
Chills his cold bed upon the mountain turf,
With hoarse, half-utter'd lamentation, lies
Murmuring responses to the dashing surf?
In moody sadness, on the giddy brink,
I see him more with envy than with fear;
He has no nice felicities that shrink
From giant horrors; wildly wandering here,
He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know
The depth or the duration of his woe.



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