I immediately assumed the lady is dead -- perhaps because I think of Emily Bronte as having a very dark vision of the world, so it wouldn't surprise me for a poem about seeming peace and beauty to end in death. It's a lovely poem that catches one at the end with its ambiguity.
Ophelia does jump right to mind, but a modern impulse, maybe started by Emily's gothic, is "The Dark Forest" - a SciFi trope roughly meaning you don't know what is out there, so attack first. You start out in the Romantic "sweet thoughts everywhere." You reach up and out like the trees "sending their breezy boughs on high." But then you see what the shelter really is. And wonder what exactly is out there that laid this lovely form.
I find 'is laid' disturbing; perhaps there has been a crime. But I also think of the passage in Jane Eyre where Jane returns to Thornfield Hall and finds it in ruins following the fire. She likens her return to a lover coming across his mistress in a countryside setting, at first believing her to be asleep, then realising she is dead. I think that's it, anyway. Charlotte, of course, but I often think of the creative energy that must have pulsed among the sisters, perhaps generating similar strands of thought at times 🤔
Nobody seems to know, really. The note to this poem in the 1992 edition of her Complete Poems indicates that I'm not the only reader who thought, "Is this woman dead, or just asleep?" Even that is ambiguous. But this is the same imagination that gave us Wuthering Heights, whatever conclusion we might want to draw from that.
By 1840, too, the family had already lost a mother and two sisters --- it's hard not to think of them as more than usually death-haunted, if not positively stalked. So a dream-vision of a moonlit (but unidentified) corpse in a glade seems pretty plausible, at any rate!
Besides incredible literary genius, I envy the Brontë sisters their collaborative family culture! I have three sisters, but when we have the (all-too rare) joy of being together, it's talk we're at--we summarily and with great wit solve the world's problems between the four of us! In all seriousness, though, this poem reminds me of another one by Emily that I found and memorized as a teenager, called "My Lady's Grave". Its concluding stanza offers a similar idea of the solitariness of the dead, encompassed only by the nature, though the image is given audible features instead of visible:
Doesn't this mean this is where sweet thoughts are "most", rather than everywhere *except* there?
The sole final slant rhyme on "head" strikes a discordant, unsettling note, I feel.
It's actually not common meter, though it's easy to think so at first because the odd numbered lines are longer - not by an extra beat, but by an extra offbeat! (A "feminine ending" - or a "tail", as I prefer to call it).
I immediately assumed the lady is dead -- perhaps because I think of Emily Bronte as having a very dark vision of the world, so it wouldn't surprise me for a poem about seeming peace and beauty to end in death. It's a lovely poem that catches one at the end with its ambiguity.
Ophelia does jump right to mind, but a modern impulse, maybe started by Emily's gothic, is "The Dark Forest" - a SciFi trope roughly meaning you don't know what is out there, so attack first. You start out in the Romantic "sweet thoughts everywhere." You reach up and out like the trees "sending their breezy boughs on high." But then you see what the shelter really is. And wonder what exactly is out there that laid this lovely form.
Thanks for this, Sally ☺️
I find 'is laid' disturbing; perhaps there has been a crime. But I also think of the passage in Jane Eyre where Jane returns to Thornfield Hall and finds it in ruins following the fire. She likens her return to a lover coming across his mistress in a countryside setting, at first believing her to be asleep, then realising she is dead. I think that's it, anyway. Charlotte, of course, but I often think of the creative energy that must have pulsed among the sisters, perhaps generating similar strands of thought at times 🤔
It goes so well with Ophelia, is it based on her, or another one who is also gone?
Nobody seems to know, really. The note to this poem in the 1992 edition of her Complete Poems indicates that I'm not the only reader who thought, "Is this woman dead, or just asleep?" Even that is ambiguous. But this is the same imagination that gave us Wuthering Heights, whatever conclusion we might want to draw from that.
By 1840, too, the family had already lost a mother and two sisters --- it's hard not to think of them as more than usually death-haunted, if not positively stalked. So a dream-vision of a moonlit (but unidentified) corpse in a glade seems pretty plausible, at any rate!
Any true meaning, beyond the poem itself, is truly lost in the mists of time, or is it myths?
Besides incredible literary genius, I envy the Brontë sisters their collaborative family culture! I have three sisters, but when we have the (all-too rare) joy of being together, it's talk we're at--we summarily and with great wit solve the world's problems between the four of us! In all seriousness, though, this poem reminds me of another one by Emily that I found and memorized as a teenager, called "My Lady's Grave". Its concluding stanza offers a similar idea of the solitariness of the dead, encompassed only by the nature, though the image is given audible features instead of visible:
Blow, west wind, by the lonely mound:
And murmur, summer streams!
There is no need of other sound
To soothe my lady's dreams.
"The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,
But most where trees are sending
Their breezy boughs on high,"
Doesn't this mean this is where sweet thoughts are "most", rather than everywhere *except* there?
The sole final slant rhyme on "head" strikes a discordant, unsettling note, I feel.
It's actually not common meter, though it's easy to think so at first because the odd numbered lines are longer - not by an extra beat, but by an extra offbeat! (A "feminine ending" - or a "tail", as I prefer to call it).
Yes, you're right on both those counts. It is trimeter throughout --- will fix!
Actually, addressing both these things you raise was a fairly easy tweak, but I think brings things into better focus. Thank you!
“dew-steeped flowers”. Tears of mourning?