Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, Volume 2, The Second Edition/Sonnet LXVI

by Charlotte Smith

SONNET LXVI.

WRITTEN IN A TEMPESTUOUS NIGHT, ON THE
COAST OF SUSSEX.

THE night-flood rakes upon the stony shore;
    Along the rugged cliffs and chalky caves
Mourns the hoarse Ocean, seeming to deplore
    All that are buried in his restless waves—
Mined by corrosive tides, the hollow rock
    Falls prone, and rushing from its turfy height,
Shakes the broad beach with long-resounding shock,
    Loud thundering on the ear of sullen Night;
Above the desolate and stormy deep,
    Gleams the wan Moon, by floating mist opprest;
Yet here while youth, and health, and labour sleep,
    Alone I wander—Calm untroubled rest,
    "Nature's soft nurse," deserts the sigh-swoln breast,
And shuns the eyes, that only make to weep!