by Keats · Cluster: Wonder and Gratitude · Sublime · Storm
Abstract
A sonnet apostrophizing the giant sea-rock Ailsa Craig asleep through ‘two dead eternities’ of air and deep. It evokes the sublime, geological time, and the sea.
Connections
Motifs: Sea, Sleep, Nature Themes & Concepts: Sublime Forms & Genres: Sonnet Settings: Scotland the Highlands
Testo integrale / Full text
Hearken, thou craggy ocean pyramid!
Give answer from thy voice, the sea-fowls’ screams!
When were thy shoulders mantled in huge streams?
When, from the sun, was thy broad forehead hid?
How long is’t since the mighty power bid
Thee heave to airy sleep from fathom dreams?
Sleep in the lap of thunder or sunbeams,
Or when grey clouds are thy cold coverlid.
Thou answer’st not; for thou art dead asleep;
Thy life is but two dead eternities -
10
The last in air, the former in the deep;
First with the whales, last with the eagle-skies -
Drown’d wast thou till an earthquake made thee steep,
Another cannot wake thy giant size.