Nature
Sonnet LXVI: Written in a Tempestuous Night, on the Coast of Sussex
From Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems (1800)
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!
Codex Note
The night-flood rakes the stony shore along the chalk cliffs, and the sea's moaning seems to share the speaker's distress. From the second volume.
Cite this poem
MLA
Smith, Charlotte. “Sonnet LXVI: Written in a Tempestuous Night, on the Coast of Sussex.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/smith/20/.
Chicago
Smith, Charlotte. “Sonnet LXVI: Written in a Tempestuous Night, on the Coast of Sussex.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/smith/20/.
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