Poetry

At Castle Wood
by Emily Bronte

The day is done, the winter sun
Is setting in its sullen sky;
And drear the course that has been run,
And dim the hearts that slowly die.

No star will light my coming night;
No morn of hope for me will shine;
I mourn not heaven would blast my sight,
And I ne'er longed for joys divine.

Through life's hard task I did not ask
Celestial aid, celestial cheer;
I saw my fate without its mask,
And met it too without a tear.

The grief that pressed my aching breast
Was heavier far than earth can be;
And who would dread eternal rest
When labour's hour was agony?

Dark falls the fear of this despair
On spirits born of happiness;
But I was bred the mate of care,
The foster-child of sore distress.

No sighs for me, no sympathy,
No wish to keep my soul below;
The heart is dead in infancy,
Unwept-for let the body go.

2. I wrote a paper on the poetry of Emily Bronte in 9th grade, and I really liked it. I haven't had any of the truly unhappy expreiences she had to cause her to write her more melancholy poems, but I still like the sad ones the best. I share a morbid streak with Emily Bronte. I also have a mild obsession with the Brontes in general.

3. The title, At Castle Wood, must be a place where Emily Bronte has known sadness. The only other thought that occurred to me was that it was the name of a cemetery.

4. I love the use of internal rhyme in this poem- it makes it seem hurried and desperate. The narrrator of the poem know that her end is coming, and is calm about it, but still feels hurried. This occurs in lines like "Through life's hard task I did not ask" (line 9) "The grief that pressed my aching breast" (line 13). Bronte also uses consonance a lot in this poem with the "s" sound. This created a tone of hurriedness and the end of the narrators life.

5. The tone of the poem is melancholy and lonely. She uses the post heart-wrenching phrases such as "foster-child of sore distress". This just evokes a feeling of utter loneliness. She uses the metaphor of the end of life to both winter and the end of the day. Winter is bare, with no feeling or cushioning happiness. All in all, it's depressing but also very independent. She is unsympathetic even towards herself, and although she uses phrases that are emotional, they aren't self pitying.