tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post3185984097923825181..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee - angst, heartbreak, and repetitive V sounds in Emily BrontëAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-76626769152101559392009-05-22T16:33:23.004-05:002009-05-22T16:33:23.004-05:00That's right, that's the stanza that contains the ...That's right, that's the stanza that contains the realization, the wisdom. But then the poem actually ends with a description of her state before her new wisdom. Very curious.<br /><br />You're also right that Emily Brontë's spiritual or religious ideas were not conventional, and led her to some unusual places.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-56883151145174382082009-05-22T10:49:10.927-05:002009-05-22T10:49:10.927-05:00As far as I'm concerned the following is the cente...As far as I'm concerned the following is the center of this poem:<br /><br />"But, when the days of golden dreams had perished,<br />And even Despair was powerless to destroy;<br />Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,<br />Strengthened, and fed without the aid of joy."<br /><br />I haven't conducted any polls or anything, but I'd say this is totally true to life, and in fact is the conclusion that most people regretfully reach at some point in their lives. Thoreau's famous "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation" seems to me to express much the same thing in a more general way. I also think of the modern American novels "Mr. Bridge" and "Mrs. Bridge."<br /><br />I don't think the Victorians as a group are likely to have confronted this specter full-on very often, given their widespread religiosity (whose approach is to grant at the outset that this world sucks, and then to rush to console you by immediately urging, "But hey, just wait 'til you get to the next one!"). <br /><br />Apparently Miss Emily did see dem bones, and in light of that fact I think her romanticizing her grief over the loss of her lover is an understandable way of fleeing from it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-30272003245389231822009-05-22T10:15:47.300-05:002009-05-22T10:15:47.300-05:00It's not that death is the subject of the poem tha...It's not that death is the subject of the poem that makes me describe it as adolescent. It's the approach, the rhetoric, and the style.<br /><br /><I>In Memoriam</I> provides a good example of a mature treatment of death. Section XI, for example, where the word "calm" is used 11 times in 20 lines:<br /><br />Calm is the morn without a sound,<br />. Calm as to suit a calmer grief,<br />. And only through the faded leaf<br />The chestnut pattering to the ground<br /><br />The poems of Emily Brontë are not the place to look for a calmer grief! As the previous commenter suggests, there may not be much real grief in this Brontë poem at all, as much as an aestheticized Romantic simulation of grief.<br /><br />Another good mature example is the Christina Rossetti poem that begins "When I am dead, my dearest \ Sing no sad songs for me," an ironic imaginary act with little room for real self-pity.<br /><br />This has given me a lot to think about, and suggested some ideas that I should look out for in other poems. I think <I>In Memoriam</I> is in order.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-58778796665035095072009-05-21T21:12:46.600-05:002009-05-21T21:12:46.600-05:00I think this poem falls into a different category....I think this poem falls into a different category. It isn't about death. It's about a certain sentimental response. The speaker knows that her "anguish" was also a kind of aesthetic self-indulgence. There are a number of post-Romantic works that confront this problem: what is the difference between an authentic, "natural" response and a sort of self-mystification? <br /><br />Look at how much time the speaker spends on her soul taking wing and hovering over the grave. Look at the repetition of those possessives: "my heaven", "shone for me", "all my life's bliss" (twice!). Where's the mention of (captial H) Heaven, the place where the dead are now? Even the deceased's grave is "already more than mine". That's a voice that has recognized what this sort of melancholy is really about.geneigte Leserinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-50274273870680105162009-05-21T16:06:58.483-05:002009-05-21T16:06:58.483-05:00Interesting stuff. I'm not well versed in the Bro...Interesting stuff. I'm not well versed in the Bronte's poetry but I think I'd like to argue against this being full of teenage angst. <br /><br />From a modern perspective this obsession with lost love and death seems like teenage angst, but it is was a very common theme in the 19th century, yes? I'd had several professors insist that Tennyson's "In Memorium" is the great poetic work of the age and it's all about a friend who died young. The two eldest Bronte sisters never reached adulthood. Death at a young age was a very common experience. <br /><br />This poem strikes me as very much within the norm of Victorian poetry. But I can see why the vampire kids love it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06906212382849291562noreply@blogger.com