The Chough 
cliffs, drawn so vividly, as from an actual 
visit to the place : 
How fearful 
And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes 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.? 
It is interesting to notice that while 
birds are here taken as a help to the eye 
in estimating the height of the precipice 
as seen from the summit, a bird is again 
used as a guide to gauge the height as 
seen from below: 
Look up a-height ; the shrill-gorged lark so far 
Cannot be seen or heard.” 
The habits of the chough were not 
unknown to the poet, since he chose the 
bird as a symbol for a certain courtier of 
1 King Lear, ww. vi. 11. 2 Tbid. 58. 
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