Shakespeare is an exception, and I am not Shakespeare--and, as far as that goes, I am not Lamartine, nor Dumas, nor Hugo.
However, opposed as I am to the doctrines of Schopenhauer and Leopardi, I will admit that the shores of the Caspian did seem rather gloomy and dispiriting.

There seemed to be nothing alive on the coast; no vegetation, no birds.

There was nothing to make you think you were on a great sea.

True, the Caspian is only a lake about eighty feet below the level of the Mediterranean, but this lake is often troubled by violent storms.

A ship cannot "get away," as sailors say: it is only about a hundred leagues wide.