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

by Charlotte Smith

R. Corbould del. J. Heath R. A. sculp.

In moody Sadness, on the giddy Brink
I view him more with Envy than with Fear.

Published May. 15^th 1797 by Cadell and Davies, Strand.

SONNET LXX.

ON BEING CAUTIONED AGAINST WALKING 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.