"Sonnet: On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic" by Charlotte Smith

I'm a sucker for a poem with a long, specific title. Charlotte Smith lived from 1749-1806 and was an influential member of Romantic era poetry.

Sonnet: On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic
by Charlotte Smith

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-uttered 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.




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