Faith And Despondency Poem by Emily Jane Brontë

Faith And Despondency

Rating: 3.2


The winter wind is loud and wild,
Come close to me, my darling child;
Forsake thy books, and mateless play;
And, while the night is gathering grey,
We'll talk its pensive hours away;--

'Ierne, round our sheltered hall
November's gusts unheeded call;
Not one faint breath can enter here
Enough to wave my daughter's hair,
And I am glad to watch the blaze
Glance from her eyes, with mimic rays;
To feel her cheek so softly pressed,
In happy quiet on my breast.

'But, yet, even this tranquillity
Brings bitter, restless thoughts to me;
And, in the red fire's cheerful glow,
I think of deep glens, blocked with snow;
I dream of moor, and misty hill,
Where evening closes dark and chill;
For, lone, among the mountains cold,
Lie those that I have loved of old.
And my heart aches, in hopeless pain
Exhausted with repinings vain,
That I shall greet them ne'er again!'

'Father, in early infancy,
When you were far beyond the sea,
Such thoughts were tyrants over me!
I often sat, for hours together,
Through the long nights of angry weather,
Raised on my pillow, to descry
The dim moon struggling in the sky;

Or, with strained ear, to catch the shock,
Of rock with wave, and wave with rock;
So would I fearful vigil keep,
And, all for listening, never sleep.
But this world's life has much to dread,
Not so, my Father, with the dead.

'Oh! not for them, should we despair,
The grave is drear, but they are not there;
Their dust is mingled with the sod,
Their happy souls are gone to God!
You told me this, and yet you sigh,
And murmur that your friends must die.
Ah! my dear father, tell me why?

For, if your former words were true,
How useless would such sorrow be;
As wise, to mourn the seed which grew
Unnoticed on its parent tree,
Because it fell in fertile earth,
And sprang up to a glorious birth--
Struck deep its root, and lifted high
Its green boughs, in the breezy sky.

'But, I'll not fear, I will not weep
For those whose bodies rest in sleep,--
I know there is a blessed shore,
Opening its ports for me, and mine;
And, gazing Time's wide waters o'er,
I weary for that land divine,
Where we were born, where you and I
Shall meet our Dearest, when we die;
From suffering and corruption free,
Restored into the Deity.'

'Well hast thou spoken, sweet, trustful child!
And wiser than thy sire;
And worldly tempests, raging wild,
Shall strengthen thy desire--
Thy fervent hope, through storm and foam,
Through wind and ocean's roar,
To reach, at last, the eternal home,
The steadfast, changeless, shore!'

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Sylvia Frances Chan 01 October 2020

Congratulations to the family of the late great poetess for being chosen by the Poem Hunter and Team for the Classic Poem Of The Day. The poem is loveliest worded with much melancholy, but very entertainingmin the sense: the poem keeps the reader reading till the end. I know well the poetic sisters of the Bronté family They are excellent authors and poets.

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Khairul Ahsan 01 October 2020

'Thy fervent hope, through storm and foam, Through wind and ocean's roar, To reach, at last, the eternal home, The steadfast, changeless, shore! ' - the long poem ends so beautifully with these lines! Congratulations on the poem's selection as the 'Classic Poem of the Day'!

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Mahtab Bangalee 01 October 2020

sometimes some beliefs make disappoint the believers that all of these nothing is happening according to beliefs; that's why the despondency comes with bitterly with realistic appearance; true belief and realistic appearance sometimes face opposite trends of life; so I thinks it's wise to live always in present realistic appearance to smash disappointment!

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Mahtab Bangalee 01 October 2020

For, if your former words were true, How useless would such sorrow be; As wise, to mourn the seed which grew Unnoticed on its parent tree, Because it fell in fertile earth, .....sometimes some beliefs make disappoint the believers that all of these nothing is happening according to beliefs;

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Edward Kofi Louis 01 October 2020

Pensive hours with the muse of winter! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

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Deluke Muwanigwa 01 October 2020

Great poem. You can feel the torment and agony. See thats why this engineer sticks with science. Faith is..well..faith a fiat thats in your mind and must remain there because of its propensity for carnage, domination and bondage. Great poem.

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Emily Jane Brontë

Emily Jane Brontë

Thornton / Yorkshire
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