Remembrance
Remembrance
Original Text
Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems of Emily Jane Brontë, ed. Clement Shorter, collected by C. W. Hatfield (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1923): 7-8. PR 4172 A1 1923 Robarts Library
1COLD in the earth -- and the deep snow piled above thee,
2 Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave !
3Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
4 Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave ?
5Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover
6 Over the mountains, on that northern shore,
7Resting their wings where heath and fern-leaves cover
8 Thy noble heart for ever, ever more ?
9Cold in the earth -- and fifteen wild Decembers
10 From those brown hills, have melted into spring :
11Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers
12 After such years of change and suffering !
13Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee,
14 While the world's tide is bearing me along ;
15Other desires and other hopes beset me,
16 Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong !
17No later light has lightened up my heaven,
18 No second morn has ever shone for me ;
19All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given,
20 All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.
21But when the days of golden dreams had perished,
22 And even Despair was powerless to destroy,
23Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,
24 Strengthened, and fed, without the aid of joy.
25Then did I check the tears of useless passion --
26 Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine ;
27Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten
28 Down to that tomb already more than mine.
29And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,
30 Dare not indulge in memory's rapturous pain ;
31Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
32 How could I seek the empty world again ?
Publication Start Year
1846
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme
Form