Written At Tinemouth, Northumberland, After A Tempestuous Voyage
As slow I climb the cliff’s ascending side,
Much musing on the track of terror past
When o’er the dark wave rode the howling blast
Pleas’d I look back, and view the tranquil tide,
That laves the pebbled shore; and now the beam
Of evening smiles on the grey battlement,
And yon forsaken tow’r, that time has rent.
The lifted oar far off with silver gleam
Is touch’d and the hush’d billows seem to sleep.
Sooth’d by the scene, ev’n thus on sorrow’s breast
A kindred stillness steals and bids her rest;
Whilst the weak winds that sigh along the deep,
The ear, like lullabies of pity, meet,
Singing the saddest notes of farewell sweet.
From Sonnets, Written Chiefly On Picturesque Spots During A Tour | 1789
William Lisle Bowles
1762–1850
Descended from a long line of clergymen, poet William Lisle Bowles grew up in Somerset, England. Unappreciated even in his lifetime, Bowles is best remembered as an early influence on Wordsworth and Coleridge. Bowles was an ardent defender of his own work and opinions, and engaged in literary feuds with some of the leading poets of his day, including Lord Byron. Though Bowles remains a minor figure in English literary history, his sonnets are an important link between the classical formalism of the 18th century and the radical individualism of the Romantic period.
