English poem
Sonnet LXX (IS there a solitary wretch who…)
by Charlotte Smith (1749–1806)
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.
More by Charlotte Smith
- Sonnet LXV (IN happier hours, ere yet so…)
- Sonnet LXVI (THE night-flood rakes upon the stony…)
- Sonnet LXVII (SWIFT fleet the billowy clouds along…)
- Sonnet LXVIII (FALL, dews of Heaven, upon my…)
- Sonnet LXXI (THE chill waves whiten in the…)
- Sonnet LXXII (THEE! lucid arbiter 'twixt day and…)
- Sonnet LXXIII (THOU! whom Prosperity has always led…)
- Sonnet LXXIV ("SLEEP, that knits up the ravell'd…)