The Haunted Beach

Mary Robinson’s poem “the Haunted Beach” captures two of the themes found in the works of Romantic era poets: the psychological effect of landscapes and the haunting aspects that accompany guilt and isolation. Robinson’s use of language captures a moonlit night on a lonely beach, and a moment that will lead to lingering terror due to the sight of ghosts and a murder victim by a mysterious and ineffectual witness. The theme of this work is captured by suggesting that things that haunt psychologically continue cyclically and perpetually the way the waves of an ocean ebb and flow.