"The Sea View" by Charlotte Smith

In her sonnet entitled “The Sea View,” Charlotte Smith describes a shepherd’s reaction to his view of a natural paradise that appears to be out of reach of the dirty and corrupting touch of human society. The eloquence with which she illustrates the virgin environment through his eyes using precise language and imagery is both perceptive and poetic, with descriptions that both invigorate our imaginations and make us yearn for the quietude and tranquility that the shepherd experiences while reclining on the soft turf.

However, even though the poem begins as a salutation to the awesome power and elegance of the natural world, Smith eventually turns to a darker and more pessimistic theme, introducing the “plague-spots” of human conflict and violence and the stains that they leave behind. She describes the warships and the dying victims as “fierce and red” pollution that utterly ruin the beautiful imagery of the sea. The poem is obviously a commentary on human society’s undeniable tendency to intrude into and destroy any haven that remains sheltered from human corruption, despite whether that intrusion’s intentions are harmful or benign. Human beings, Smith suggests, are blundering oafs, shattering every fragile ecosystem and environment with which they come into contact.

War has always been a blight upon the history of Mankind, causing and guaranteeing misery and hardship around every corner of our bloody existence. Charlotte Smith lived and wrote during an age of constant conflict and war, when nations were fighting for independence on one side and the retention of imperial colonies on the other. This poem is simply her attempt to uncover the brutalities and stains of conflict, and to show her disdain for mankind’s bloody additions to Heaven’s masterpiece. (280 words)