Charlotte Smith writes from a separated or distanced, painfully separated, point of view in "Beachy Head". Midway through the poem she writes, "I once was happy, when while yet a child,/ I learn'd to love these upland solitudes,/ And, when elastic as the mountain air,/ To my light spirit, care was yet unknown/ And evil unforeseen," (282-286). She is separated in time from when she was happy. She also seems physically separated from the place where she was happy: "Early it came,/ And childhood scarcely passed, I was condemned,/ A guiltless exile, silently to sigh,/ While Memory, with faithful pencil, drew/ The contrast; and regretting, I compar'd/ With the polluted smoky atmosphere/ And dark and stifling streets, the southern hills," (286-292). The separation of this island from the continent of Europe mirrors her feelings of separation. These are the themes of the poem: time, memory, separation, happiness experienced when connected with nature even in solitude, and pain.
The poem ends as the poet describes the second hermit, this one living in the caves beneath the Beachy cliffs. This man, "who long disgusted with the world/ And all its ways, appear'd to suffer life/ Rather than live," (676-678). Yet this man seemed to live for the sake of saving others. During storms, he "went forth/ And hazarding a life, too valueless,/ He waded thro' the waves, with plank or pole/ Towards where the mariner in conflict dread/ Was buffeting for life the roaring surge," (701-705). In the end, this hermit also dies in a storm, and the mountain shepherds find him and bury him and chisel in the rocks a memorial: "That dying in the cause of charity/ His spirit, from its earthly bondage freed,/ Had to some better region fled for ever," (730-732). In a poem about separation, death is the ultimate separation, and yet the poet portrays it hopefully, as a better place where troubled souls can find freedom from earthly bondage.
I definitely agree with Cole about the appearance separation in "Beachy Head". I think this also supports the sublime nature of the poem- in order for one to experience the sublime, whether visually or through words, they must be at some distance from the subject. Thus Cole's points about the variety of separation in this poem add to its overall sublime nature.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the sense of separation concerning the sublime is one of deep significance and not limited by distance or time alone. In experiencing the sublime, we experience some greatness outside the normal forms of reality. Thus, the experience itself is among many other things, metaphysical. As we are drawn farther in time and distance from the initial feeling of the overwhelming experience of the sublime, the recollection of that feeling becomes increasingly empty. We only encounter the sublime in the experience itself, and long to relive that experience once it is gone. I feel that a sense of separation from sublime experience reveal's Smith's desperate sense of longing for its euphoric sensation. It is as if, in her depressed state, the only thing potent enough to penetrate the gloom is sublime experience.
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