To Ailsa Rock
To Ailsa Rock - form Summary
Sonnet as Monumental Address
Keats frames "To Ailsa Rock" as a compact sonnet that addresses a remote sea-stack. The poem treats geological time and silence by juxtaposing its submerged past with its present, wind-battered immobility. The sonnet form provides a focused argumentative move—a turn from questioning to affirmation—that compresses vast temporal contrasts into a single persona speaking to an inert, monumental object observed on a Scottish tour.
Read Complete AnalysesHearken, thou craggy ocean-pyramid, Give answer by 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, The last in air, the former in the deep! First with the whales, last with the eagle-skies! Drowned wast thou till an earthquake made thee steep, Another cannot wake thy giant-size!
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