lonely desert beach

In The Haunted Beach, Mary Robinson uses nature to lay the foundation for her eerie story. Robinson takes the natural landscape of the beach (usually associated with beauty) and transforms the reader?s preconceptions of the landscape with only a few key words. She describes a ?lonely? beach, ?jutting? cliffs, ?moaning wind,? and a ?cavern? with ?shadowy Jaws.? Without the negative descriptors, each of these aspects of nature can be viewed in a positively. However, as soon as they are associated with anything negative, the reader?s view of nature is completely altered. Robinson demonstrates nature?s duality with the scene she sets in this poem; nature can be both magnificent and terrifying at the same time. One can view the beach?s emptiness as tranquil; Robinson describes it as lonely. The cliffs can be glorious; in this case they are sharp and ?jutting.? And the cavern, that can have simply mysterious qualities, is described as possessing ?shadowy jaws.?