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Home  »  Parnassus  »  William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

Dover Cliffs

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

(See full text.)

COME on, sir; here’s the place:—stand still.—How fearful

And dizzy ’tis, to cast one’s eye so low!

The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air,

Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down

Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:

The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,

Appear like mice; and yond’ tall anchoring bark

Diminish’d to her cock; her cock, a buoy

Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,

That on the unnumber’d idle pebbles chafes,

Cannot be heard so high:—I’ll look no more;

Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight

Topple down headlong.