Hell's Mouth. Poem by Fay Slimm

Welcome could not be the word
When visitors first encounter
This mouth of Hell.
These seeming absurdly high
Dourly cascading cliffs
Fall wildly to terrible turbulence.

With fiendish passionate cries
Gulls scream, as if hating
Any but themselves in this place.
In creating a foaming eye
Of violent white, the elements
Stake their claim then dissipate..

Broiling foam perpetually stirs
To heighten human fear,
Which, no nearer than here
In this place negates the claim
That this we can but steer
Into something which earns
Us a painless end.

If escaping from drear, droning
Life is our aim, we clearly see
That jumps do not lead to escape
From these dreadful rocks.
Bulwarking shapes will appear
To repress the watery sea.

Yet with each spuming spray
They ruggedly rear and seem
To shout, 'Keep away' lest
Our longed-for freedom
Of imminent end disappears.

Columnular strength, terrible
Beauty of savagery which cannot
Be assuaged, behaving too well
With misleading dignity. When
Plunging into the gape we think
We are escaping, - - but Hell
Hath no fury like this mouth.

The warning is strong with advice
To keep out and away from
This awesome place. but
Some are not always so wise....


Precipitous cliffs along the Cornish Coast
Otherwise known as Suicide Drop.....
.