Romanticism uses nature and sublimity to represent overwhelming emotions. I believe that this word overwhelming would help to address Beachy Head because of its use of large images intermixed with small preludes. The poem moves like a wave; it ebbs and flows and it rises and crashes. The poem opens with a “concussion” (Line 6) like the crashing of a wave. Smith uses nature in this scene to convey an overwhelming emotions of awe and fear coming together under the creation of this landmark.
Smith almost makes us forget of the human presence in these scenes because she leaves such a small window for the human to inhabit. Then suddenly, she is there, in deep contemplation and thought. She shows the female mind’s power to create and remember without male guidance. Smith shows that she is not entirely ignorant to the world around her but is able to witness and think abstractly. She is able to take a huge scene of nature and transition it to politics, gender studies, the individual, the general, and so much more.
Romanticism Blog 