Remembrance by Emily Bronte
Remembrance by Emily Bronte
Emily Bronte belonged to the Romantic convention. She became more famous with her one an only novel Wuthering Heights. So than a poet she was known as a novelist. Both Emile and her sister Anne Bronte’s works were too imaginative and sometimes those creations were more exaggerative and hyperbolic. As they lived in seclusion under the strict governance of their father the curate, and having lost their mother in their childhood they became more attached to the isolation and loneliness. And these experiences were reflected on their work.
The poem Remembrance is an extract of Emily and Anne Bronte’s one of imaginary work which was named as Gondal Poems and there they created a story named as Gondal saga. According to that a male character known as Julius Brenzaida, the emperor of the kingdom of Gondal, dies at the battlefield and the poem Remembrance sings by his wife Augusta fifteen years after his death to affirm her deep love.
So in brief the poem can be categorized as an elegy. The poem is a lyrical poem which contains eight stanzas with four lines in each. As the title itself says it is her memory of her lover that makes her stronger. The memory has become a guiding force to her. Furthermore she asks an eternal love, a love beyond the grave while mourning at the death of her beloved.
In the first two stanzas the poetess asks two questions which end with the answer ‘no’. The poem begins by mentioning her lover is lying in a ‘dreary grave’ ‘far far’ away. Her first question is whether fifteen years of time period can make her forget her lover. Next she adds more strength for the first question by asking another rhetorical question which hints that still her thoughts fly alone to that top of the mountain. Third stanza she provides answer ‘no’ for both questions. She refers the reason by taking the environmental changes. As it says fifteen years means ‘fifteen wild Decembers’. As we all know December brings winter and heavy snow can bring death. Yet her winter was not hard and it melted and brought spring which symbolizes life and it shows how she remains faithful to her lover and nothing could cover their love. Again she brings another possibility that can make her forget him which is the distractions of the world. And at the same time she pleads not to do that and in the next stanza she elaborates how it happens. As there’s no light can light her heaven, as there’s no second mourn to her, as all her ecstasies, pleasures and bliss lie under his grave there’s no other thing that can detach her from him.
In the next part she reveals how she gets strength to accept his death. The man’s death makes her stronger to understand the reality. She learned to live without getting enjoyed with the pleasures of love. She weaned her soul from all the pleasures of love. Furthermore she reveals her burning wish to unite next to his grave. In the last stanza too she continues her wish being more romantic. She proclaims that she will not allow herself to suffer more. She will be alive with the memory. Moreover the last stanza suggests the inevitability of separation and permanence of love against the impermanence of body. So they can achieve their love beyond the death.
