Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Smith's "Beachy Head"

It seems as though Smith is experimenting with her writing style a bit with "Beachy Head"- it differs quite a bit from her sonnets by using a narrative technique. I think the fragmentation and thus the notion of wandering is well established and by using this fragmented style, Smith frees herself from the bounds of time. I love the description of the cliff and the "chalky clefts"-I think portrays the sublime really well. I thought, and maybe I'm wrong, that Smith plays with reality and the ornamental and extravagant (what is actually there and what is made-up memory). The stanza below further establishes the idea of wandering, because not only is the reader wandering through a sublime setting, but also a mind that wanders. 

"...the floating clouds
Suspended, move upon the evening gale,
And gathering round his orb, as if to shade
The insufferable brightness, they resign
Their gauzy whiteness; and more warm’d assume
All hues of purple. There, transparent gold
Mingles with ruby tints, and sapphire gleams,
And colours, such as Nature through her works
Shew only in the ethereal canopy."

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