Analysis of Sonnet LXX: On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic
Charlotte Smith 1749 (London) – 1806 (Tilford, Surrey)
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.
Scheme | ABABACACDEDFBB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110100111 1011110111 01001110101 1101011101 1101111101 1111010101 1111011 10001010101 0101010101 1111110111 1111111 11010101001 111110111 0110110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 588 |
Words | 106 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 469 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 104 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 29, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 166 Views
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"Sonnet LXX: On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5610/sonnet-lxx%3A-on-being-cautioned-against-walking-on-an-headland-overlooking-the-sea%2C-because-it-was-frequented-by-a-lunatic>.
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